Rottboellia L.f., Suppl. Pl. 13, 114. 1781.
羅氏草屬
Annuals; culms solid, erect, branched in upper part. Leaf-sheaths with rigid tubercle-based hairs; ligule short, truncate; blades linear, flat, glabrous or with tubercle-based hairs, the highest leaves reduced. Inflorescence a spike-like raceme, terete, with stout, articulate rachis. Spikelets dorsally compressed, awnless, in alternate pairs, the secondary one sessile, the primary one pedicelled, falling off with the joint. Sessile spikelet dorsally sunken into a cavity formed by rachis and adjacent pedicel, 1-2-flowered; lower glume abaxial, closing the cavity, hard, convex, ovate or oblong-elliptic, obtuse or truncate, apex winged and margins incurved, numerous-nerved; upper glume usually smaller and thinner, flat or sometimes keeled; lemmas hyaline, ovate-oblong, obtuse or acute, 0-3-nerved, glabrous, margins incurved; paleas hyaline, lower palea sometimes absent; lodicules 2, cuneate; stamens 3; styles 2, free; the stigmas plumose. Caryopsis ovate or oblong. Pedicels usually connate with rachis; pedicelled spikelet variously developed; barren or with staminate flower; glumes unequal, flat.
About four species distributed in tropical and subtropical Africa and Asia.
