Pantropical.In the Hawaiian Islands,
naturalized on
Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Hawai`i.
Habit
Annuals; culms densely tufted, pale or green and slightly glaucous, filiform, 7-30 cm tall, 0.2-0.5 mm in diameter.
Leaves
Sheaths pale green, often tinged reddish brown in lower part, 0.5-3 cm long, orifice truncate.
Flowers
Spikelets many-flowered, rusty or pale brown, broadly ovoid to ovoid-ellipsoid, 3-7 mm long, 3-4 mm wide, obtuse; glumes pale brown, membranous, broadly elliptic to ovate, ca. 2 mm long, obtuse, the midnerve green, ending below the glume apex; bristles 6-7, rusty brown, retrorsely spinulose, slightly longer than the achene; style base depressed-conical, nearly 1/3 as wide as achene; stigmas 2.
Fruit
Achenes black, glossy, smooth, broadly obovoid, thickly biconvex, ca. 1 mm long.
