Leersia oryzoides (L.) Sw.

Rhizomatous, yellow-green erect perennials. Leaf-sheath rounded, retrorsely scabrid between the fine nerves. Ligule c. 1 mm, chartaceous, truncate, or erose. Leaf-blade 9–20 cm × 7–10 mm, flat, finely prickle-toothed on both surfaces and on margins, finely pointed. Culm to 50 cm, internodes glabrous; nodes pubescent. Panicle 10–14 cm, enclosed at base by uppermost leaf-sheaths; branches filiform, flexuous, naked in lower ⅓. Spikelets c. 5 mm, elliptic-oblong, very pale green to later dark brown, shortly pedicelled, falling entire at maturity. Glumes reduced to a minute cupule at tip of pedicel. Lemma c. 5 mm, cymbiform, nerves 5, confluent at apex, firmly membranous, stiffly toothed on strong keel and scattered elsewhere, abruptly narrowed above to a short, blunt tip. Palea ≈ lemma, texture similar, hyaline, 3-nerved, keel stiffly long toothed. Stamens 3, sometimes 2; anthers c. 1.5 mm, 0.5 mm in cleistogamous flowers. Gynoecium: ovary glabrous; stigmas plumose, laterally inserted. Caryopsis c. 3 × 1.2 mm, laterally compressed, whitish to dark brown; embryo small; hilum linear, ≈ caryopsis.

[From: Edgar and Connor (2000) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 5 (second printing).]