Tetrapogon Desf., Fl. Atlant. 2:388, t. 256. 1799. Boiss., Fl. Or. 5:555. 1884; Sultan & Stewart, Grasses W. Pak. 2:242. 1959; Bor, Grasses Burma Ceyl. Ind. Pak. 475. 1960; Bor in Rech.f., Fl. Iran. 70:448. 1970; Tzvelev, Poaceae URSS 638. 1976.
Tufted annuals or perennials, Leaf-blades linear, flat or folded, tapering, acute or obtuse; ligule membranous, less than 1 mm long, ciliolate; sheaths glabrous, keeled and often flabellate. Inflorescence terminal, solitary or a pair of dense, often ciliate or villous spikes. Spikelets 4-9(-12)-flowered, subsessile, alternate in 2 rows on a tough rhachis; glumes persistent, usually similar, membranous, glabrous, 1-nerved, ovate-lanceolate or the upper elliptic-oblong, acute, acuminate or with an awn-point; lowest 1-5(-7) florets fertile; lemma coriaceous, laterally compressed and keeled, usually ciliate on the lateral nerves and keel, entire or 2-toothed at the apex, with a subapical awn; callus acute, ciliate; palea ciliolate on the keels; upper (1)2.4(6) florets sterile and reduced to glabrous, rarely ciliate, clavate, awned or awnless lemmas. Grain ovate, obovate or oblong, pericarp always loose.
A genus of 4 species in the tropics and subtropics of the Old World; 2 species occur in Pakistan.
