Description: Perennials or annuals with flat, narrow leaf blades; ligule rigidly ciliate
Inflorescence a solitary fragile spike-like raceme on an articulate rachis. Spikelets paired, those of each pair differing in sex of the upper floret and sometimes also in shape, 1 sessile the other pedicellate. Sessile spikelet falling together with the adjacent joint of the rachis and pedicel; lower floret male, upper bisexual. Glumes equal or subequal; lower sometimes deeply grooved, rarely flat, acutely 2-keeled upwards with inflexed margins, the keels winged; upper glume keeled upwards with a bristle-like awn. Lemmas hyaline, the lower entire, muticous, male, the upper bisexual, bifid and awned from the sinus. Paleas hyaline, more or less equalling their lemmas. Pedicellate spikelets tardily deciduous from its pedicel; lower floret male, upper floret male or neuter. flat, often with a strongly nerved lower glume, the 2 florets male or neuter, resembling the lower floret of the sessile spikelets.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 7 species from the tropics. Australia: 1 species (native).
Derivation: from the Arabic common name for the type species of the genus.
Text by Jacobs, S.W.L., Whalley, R.D.B. & Wheeler, D.J.B.
Taxon concept: Grasses of New South Wales, Fourth Edition (2008).
| One species in NSW: Sehima nervosum |
|
