Panicum malaccense Trinius, Gram. Panic. 204. 1826; Sphaerocaryum elegans Nees ex Steudel.

Culms very slender and delicate, trailing, forming loose mats, rooting at lower nodes, sometimes a glandular ring below the nodes, 10–30 cm tall. Leaf sheaths papillose-hispid, margins ciliate; leaf blades ovate-cordate, 1–1.5 × 0.6–1 cm, ± hispidulous, margins ciliate-serrulate, apex acute. Panicle shortly exserted from uppermost sheath, 2–5 × 1–2 cm, ovate with many spikelets on 1–3 mm capillary glandular pedicels. Spikelets ovate to subglobose, ca. 1 mm, glumes falling before the floret; glumes hyaline, glabrous, the lower 2/3 spikelet length, veinless, the upper equal to spikelet or slightly shorter, 1-veined; lemma equal to spikelet, pubescent; palea similar to lemma. Anthers yellow, ca. 0.3 mm. Caryopsis brownish at maturity, ca. 0.7 mm. Fl. and fr. autumn. 2n = 18.

Damp swampy places; below 1500 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Jiangxi, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam].