Panicum ramosum Linnaeus, Mant. Pl. 1: 29. 1767; P. brachylachnum Steudel; P. canescens Roth ex Roemer & Schultes; Urochloa ramosa (Linnaeus) T. Q. Nguyen.

Annual. Culms tufted, loosely ascending, 30–60 cm tall. Leaf sheaths glabrous to pubescent; leaf blades narrowly lanceolate, 4–12 × 0.4–0.8 cm, velvety-pubescent, margins thickened and slightly wavy, scaberulous, apex acuminate; ligule short, ciliate. Inflorescence axis 6–13 cm; racemes 3–6, 2–5 cm, loosely erect to ascending; rachis triquetrous, hispid; spikelets mostly borne in loosely contiguous pairs, one spikelet subsessile, the other shortly pedicelled, single toward raceme apex, lightly appressed to axis. Spikelets elliptic, 2.5–3.5 mm, with a 0.1–0.5 mm basal stipe, glabrous, pubescent or hispidulous, acute to cuspidate; lower glume broadly ovate, 1/3–1/2 spikelet length, 5-veined; upper glume 5–7-veined; upper lemma distinctly rugose, apex acute. Fl. and fr. summer–autumn. 2n = 32, 36.

Grasslands, hill slopes, weedy places. Hainan, Yunnan [Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand, Vietnam; Africa].