Cutandia memphitica (Spreng.) Benth.

Nile region, oases, Mediterranean region, Egyptian desert, Res Sea coastal strip and Sinai.

Mediterranean region, eastwards to Pakistan and central Asia.

Sandy, sometimes saline, soils.

Annual.

A small but useful desert grass providing some fodder for sheep.

Tufted annual; culms 4-35 cm high, procumbent to erect, somewhat rigid. Leaf-blades 2-10 cm long, 1-2 mm wide, flat or convolute, smooth or scaberulous; sheaths inflated. Inflorescence a sparingly branched panicle, partly enclosed in the uppermost leaf-sheath, 3-15 cm long, mostly with 1 spikelet and 1(-2) branches at each node; branches and pedicles pulvinate, strongly divaricate at maturity. Spikelets 7-10.5 mm long, oblanceolate, 2-3(-4)-flowered; glumes acute to acuminate, apiculate, glabrous, thickly 1-nerved, the lower 3.5-4.3 mm long, the upper 4.5-5.5 mm long; lemma 5.8-7.5 mm long (excluding the 0.5-1.2 mm long awn), glabrous, acuminate.

Distribution: Pakistan (Baluchistan); Mediterranean region eastwards to Turkmenistan.

Annuals, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Stems trailing, spreading or prostrate, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems geniculate, decumbent, or lax, sometimes rooting at nodes, Stems caespitose, tufted, or clustered, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stem internodes hollow, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves mostly basal, below middle of stem, Leaves mostly cauline, Leaves conspicuously 2-rank ed, distichous, Leaves sheathing at base, Leaf sheath mostly open, or loose, Leaf sheath smooth, glabrous, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf sheath enlarged, inflated or distended, Leaf blades disarticulating from sheath, deciduous at ligule, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades very narrow or filiform, less than 2 mm wide, Leaf blade margins folded, involute, or conduplicate, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence an open panicle, openly paniculate, branches spreading, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence branches more than 10 to numerous, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets pedicellate, Spikelets laterally compressed, Inflorescence or spikelets partially hidden in leaf sheaths, subtended by spatheole, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 3-7 florets, Spikelets solitary at rachis nodes, Spikelets bisexual, Spikelets di sarticulating beneath or between the florets, Spikelets conspicuously hairy , Rachilla or pedicel glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes equal or subequal, Glumes equal to or longer than adjacent lemma, Glumes keeled or winged, Glumes 1 nerved, Lemmas thin, chartaceous, hyaline, cartilaginous, or membranous, Lemma 3 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma apex acute or acuminate, Lemma awnless, Lemma mucronate, very shortly beaked or awned, less than 1-2 mm, Lemma margins thin, lying flat, Lemma straight, Palea present, well developed, Palea membranous, hyaline, Palea about equal to lemma, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis, Caryopsis ellipsoid, longitudinally grooved, hilum long-linear.

Cutandia memphitica là một loài thực vật có hoa trong họ Hòa thảo. Loài này được (Spreng.) Benth. mô tả khoa học đầu tiên năm 1881.