Plants annual. Culms 13-120 cm, not woody. Ligules membranous, truncate, lacerate, sometimes ciliate; blades linear, flat. Inflorescences terminal, panicles of 1-70, 1-sided, spikelike branches, irregularly disposed on elongate rachises, clearly exceeding the upper leaves; branches with 2 rows of 1 or more closely imbricate, sessile spikelets, proximal spikelets sometimes replaced by short, tardily deciduous, secondary branches; disarticulation at the base of the branches or at the base of the secondary branches and (eventually) beneath the florets. Spikelets laterally compressed, cuneate, with 1-3 florets. Glumes subequal, much longer than the florets, usually exceeding the distal florets, coriaceous or membranous, strongly keeled, acuminate-aristate; lemmas thinly membranous, weakly keeled, 3-veined, pilose over the veins, apices acute to 2-lobed, central veins excurrent, forming mucros. Caryopses elliptic-oblong, trigonous. x = 10. Name a corruption of the Arabic danaiba, little tail, an allusion to the prolonged apices of the glumes.

Dinebra, a genus of three species, is native from Africa to Madagascar and India. One species has been reported from the Flora region.

1.   Dinebra retroflexa (Vahl) Panz.
Viper Grass

Plants loosely tufted. Culms 13-120 cm, decumbent, straggling, often rooting at the lower nodes. Leaves sometimes glandular, particularly on the sheaths; blades 4.5-28 cm long, 4-8 mm wide, finely pointed. Panicles 8-34 cm; branches 0.6-5(7) cm, stiff, initially ascending, reflexed at maturity; disarticulation at the base of the branches. Spikelets 5.7-9 mm, with 1-3 florets. Glumes 5.7-9 mm, asymmetric, coriaceous, keels glandular, apices caudate-curving; lemmas 2.1-2.9 mm, narrowly ovate, appressed pubescent on the lateral veins and adjacent to the lower 1/2 of the central vein; paleas appressed pubescent on the flaps adjacent to the keels. 2n = 20.

Dinebra retroflexa is native from southern Africa through tropical Africa to Egypt, Iraq, Pakistan, and India. It has reportedly been found on chrome ore piles in Canton, Maryland, a temporary unloading ground for ores in the Port of Baltimore (Reed 1964), and in Mecklenberg County, North Carolina. It is a common weed of rich soils in moist, tropical regions.