Glaucous sward-forming perennial with leafy stolons up to 45 cm long; culms erect or ascending, 7-30 cm high, swollen and knotted at the base. Leaf-blades usually convolute, sometimes flat, 0.5-3(5) cm long, 0.4-1.7 mm wide, distichous, stiff, pungent. Panicle spike-like, linear, 1.5-8 cm long, 3-5 mm wide, untidily cylindrical, the branches closely appressed to the rhachis and 2.5-12 mm long. Spikelets 1.4-2.1 mm long; lower glume lanceolate, 0.8-1.4 mm long, three-fifths to four-fifths the length of the spikelet (but variable even in the same panicle), acute; upper glume narrowly ovate-elliptic, three-quarters to as long as the spikelet, acute; lemma as long as the upper glume or slightly longer; anthers 3, 0.8-0.9 mm long. Grain broadly oblong, 0.7-0.9 mm long.

Type: India, Klein (B).

Distribution: Pakistan (Punjab); India, Burma, Sri Lanka; Indo-China.

Sporobolus tremulus is very similar to Sporobolus virginicus, differing by its slightly shorter spikelets, relatively shorter glumes, less robust culms, shorter, finer leaves and narrower oblong grain. It is less of a halophyte than Sporobolus virginicus and is as likely to be found at the margins of paddy fields and in scrub as on the sea-shore and in mangrove swamps. It is an excellent soil-binder and may prove to be a useful fodder grass. Although only one specimen has been seen from Pakistan, it is said to be common in the plains.