Annual or perennial to 2 m tall with thick stems. Leaves narrowly lanceolate, to about 50 cm long and 5 cm wide. Spikelets to 1 cm long; summer to autumn. Fruit beadlike, more or less round, hard, white to brown or black but mostly grey.

Tropics, mostly SE Asia

Specific epithet sometimes spelt 'lachryma'.

Escaped from cultivation and naturalised on the northern and central coasts of New South Wales and also in isolated spots in Western Australia and Queensland.

Source: Spencer, R.; Aldous, D.; Stajsic, V.; McGeary, D (2005). Poaceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 5. Flowering plants. Monocotyledons. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.