Pitscale grass

Hackelochloa granularis, the pitscale grass, is a slender annual grass of the Poaceae widespread across tropical Africa, Asia, and the Americas in seasonally moist grasslands, open woodlands, and disturbed soils. Plants are tufted, with geniculate-ascending culms 20–80 cm tall, often branching from the lower nodes and rooting at the base. Leaf sheaths are loose with stiff tubercle-based hairs, especially toward the throat; ligules are short and membranous-ciliate. Blades are flat, lanceolate, 4–15 cm long, 5–15 mm wide, with a rounded to sub-cordate base. Inflorescences are short cylindrical racemes 1–4 cm long, partly hidden in leaf sheaths and arranged in slender panicles; spikelets are paired—the sessile spikelet is globose, 1–1.5 mm, with a hard, pitted, bead-like lower glume (hence 'pitscale'), and the pedicellate spikelet is reduced and sterile. The raceme disarticulates at maturity into globose units. Flowering occurs in the latter half of the rainy season.