Description from Flora of China
Hemigymnia Stapf in Prain, Fl. Trop. Africa 9: 741. 1920, not Griffith (1842).
Perennials. Culms tufted or rambling and stoloniferous. Leaf blades lanceolate; ligule membranous, truncate, ciliolate, or sometimes obscure. Inflorescence an open panicle, primary branches spaced along the central axis, spikelets borne on short secondary branches, singly or in appressed secondary racemelets. Spikelets dorsally compressed, 2-flowered; glumes similar, subequal, herbaceous, 1/2–2/3 spikelet length, 3–5(–7)-veined; lower floret herbaceous, sterile or staminate, its lemma as long as the spikelet, 7–9-veined; upper lemma as long as the spikelet, coriaceous to cartilaginous, flattened on the back, smooth or rugulose, margins narrow, hyaline, incurved upward. x = 9.
This genus resembles Panicum, but can be immediately distinguished by its short glumes.
Three species: Old World tropics; one species in China.
(Authors: Chen Shouliang (陈守良); Sylvia M. Phillips)