Giant finger grass is an annual or short-lived perennial. Culms loosely tufted, ascending or decumbent at base and rooting at lower nodes, 0.2–1 m tall. Leaf sheaths keeled, glabrous; leaf blades flat or folded, 10–40 cm, 4–8 mm wide, glabrous, apex acute; ligule short, ciliate. Racemes digitate, 5–15, erect or ascending, 3–8 cm, often somewhat flexuous and purplish; rachis scabrous. Spikelets with 3 or 4 florets, ciliate on upper margins with 1–1.5 mm hairs; upper florets sterile, lemmas empty, inflated, overlapping to form a knob at side of fertile floret; second lemma turbinate, truncate, 1–1.5 mm, glabrous or sparsely appressed-pilose on back, awn subequaling awn of fertile floret; third (and fourth) lemmas orbicular, awn somewhat shorter. This plant belonging to poaceae is found all along south India and i took this photograph on 22nd April, 2012 from just behind my lab.
