Eriochloa crebra

Slender, tufted perennial. Culms erect, to c. 60 cm high, nodes glabrous, but culm usually with a ring of short, sparse hairs immediately below node. Leaves glabrous; blade 4–15 cm long and 2–6 mm wide; ligule c. 0.5 mm long. Panicle 4–20 cm long, one-sided, with 4–10 loosely appressed branches to 5 cm long. Spikelets dorsally compressed, 3.5–5 mm long, shortly pedicellate, in two rows along the flattened branches, pedicels sparsely ciliate toward apex with hairs to c. 1 mm long; lower glume pale to purplish, c. 0.5 mm long, closely adhering to rachilla; upper glume obscurely 5-nerved, acute to acuminate, as long as the spikelet, lightly covered dorsally with appressed white; lower (sterile) lemma equal to upper glume; fertile lemma elliptic, 2–3 mm long (including a slender terminal awn c. 0.5 mm long), hardened, white, granular, sometimes finely transversely ridged. Flowers Nov.–Jan.