Paspalum mollicomum Kunth, Enum. Pl. 1: 47. 1833; Digitaria hayatae (Honda) Honda ex Ohwi; ?D. magna (Honda) Tuyama; Panicum hayatae (Honda) Makino & Nemoto (1925), not A. Camus (1923); ?P. hayatae var. magnum (Honda) Makino & Nemoto; Syntherisma hayatae Honda; ?S. haya-tae var. magna Honda; ?S. magna (Honda) Honda.

Short-lived perennial, stoloniferous and mat-forming. Culms slender, flowering shoots ascending, 20–50 cm tall. Leaf sheaths glabrous to pilose; leaf blades linear-lanceolate, 2–6 × 0.3–0.5 cm, glabrous to pilose, short and patent on the stolons, longer and softer on the flowering shoots; ligule 1–2 mm. Inflorescence digitate; racemes 2–3(–5), 3–9 cm; spikelets ternate; rachis ribbonlike, winged, ca. 1 mm broad, margins scabrous; pedicels usually terete, smooth, tips discoid. Spikelets elliptic, 1.7–2.3 mm, hairs smooth or verrucose; lower glume absent or nearly so; upper glume as long as or slightly shorter than spikelet, 3–5-veined, pilose; lower lemma as long as spikelet, with 7 equidistant, rather prominent veins, pilose; upper lemma yellow to pale brown at maturity. Anthers 0.5–0.9 mm. Fl. and fr. Aug–Oct.

Digitaria magna is an inadequately known entity which may be synonymous with D. mollicoma. Syntherisma hayatae var. magna was described from Taiwan, but the protologue is not sufficient to establish its identity.

Dry sandy soils, near seashores; below 1200 m. Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi, Taiwan, Zhejiang [Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines; Pacific Islands].