Flora of Assam

Leaves solitary at the nodes sometimes crowded at the base of the stems alternate and two-rowed consisting of sheath ligule and blade; sheaths encircling the culm with the margins free and over-lapping or more or less connate frequently swollen at the base (sheath-node) ; ligule placed at the junction of the sheath and blade membranaceous or reduced to a fringe of hairs rarely absent; bla [...] 3; stigmas generally plumose; fruit mostly a caryopsis with a thin pericarp adnate to the seed or rarely a nut or a berry or a utricle with a free pericarp with starchy endosperm and a small embryo at the base on the abaxial face. [...] D. Lemma and rhachilla glabrous or hairy in the latter case with the hairs not enveloping the lemma or if so then with the lemma bearing a geniculate awn; low or moderately tall grasses. [...] Glumes usually as long as or longer than the lowest floret often as long as the spikelet and enclosing the florets; lemma awnless or more often awned from the back or the sinus of the 2-lobed tip; the awn usually geniculate; glumes or lemmas or both frequently with thin shining margins. [...] Spikelets in groups on the branches of the panicle; sterile spikelets often numerous the fertile 2-flowered ' the lower floret with lemma and palea the upper rudimentary at the top of the prolongation of the rhachilla; glumes 2-4 broad often long acuminate sometimes gemmiparous mannerved frequently hairy on the back; lemma of the fertile floret membranous convolute acuminate subulate o