Culms 17-50 cm.
Blades 7-20 cm long, 5-11.5 mm wide, bases rounded, setaceous apically.
Inflorescence branches 1.5-10 cm, in whorls of 2-5, either subdigitate or on rachises up to 15 cm long.
Spikelets 5.5-13 mm, oblong, serrate in outline, with 6-25 florets.
Lower glumes 1.2-2.9 mm, linear-oblong, acute, mucronate;
upper glumes 1.5-3 mm, lanceolate, acuminate, awn-tipped;
lemmas 2-2.8 mm, narrowly ovate, keels scabrous, shallowly concave distally, midveins excurrent, forming stout, 0.3-0.9 mm awns;
lateral veins also slightly excurrent.
Fruits ellipsoid;
seeds blackish, rugose, finely granular. 2
n = 36.
Acrachne racemosa grows in areas of seasonal rainfall in tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Australia. It has been found in Riverside County, California and may become established there.
©Utah State University. Reproduced with permission.
