Japan Flora: An­nual; culms tufted, 10-40 cm. long; leaves 1-3 mm. wide; in­florescence simple, to 10 cm. long, with 1-5 ascending rays about 5 cm. long, rarely the rays abbreviated and the inflores­cence capitate, the bracts 2 or 3, longer than the inflorescence; spikelets linear, 1-2.5 cm. long, 2.5-3 mm. wide, strongly com­pressed, pale and somewhat yellowish at maturity, slightly lustrous; scales broadly ovate, 3-3.5 mm. long, obtuse, incon­spicuously several-nerved, the keel thick, green, with a slightly recurved awnlikc mucro about 0.7 mm. long at apex; achenes 1/3 as long as the scale, lustrous, 3-angled; stigmas 3. Aug.-Oct. Waste grounds, roadsides, seashores, quite common

Honshu (Kanto Distr. and westw.), Shikoku, Kyushu. Ryukyus, Formosa, China, India, and throughout the Tropics.