Herbs , perennial, rhizomatous, erect, decumbent, or reclining, simple or sparsely branched, 10-60 cm, glabrous, without black, glandular dots. Leaves alternate; petiole absent or to ca. 3 mm, glabrous. Leaf blade prominently to obscurely pinnately veined, narrowly to broadly oblanceolate, 7-20 × 2-4.5 cm, lateral veins ascending, originating from base to near apex of blade, base decurrent, auriculate and ± clasping (amplexicaulous), apex acute or obtuse. Spikes mostly terminal, 1-3, densely flowered, 5-19 cm; peduncle glabrous, mature fruiting spikes 2-3 mm diam. Fruits sessile, ellipsoid, ca. 1.7 × 1 mm, minutely warty; beak elongate, 0.3-0.5 mm, tapering smoothly from broadened base to sharply acute apex, without filiform apical portion, straight, bent, or gradually hooked from about middle.

Flowering all year. Roadsides, woodlands; 0-20 m; introduced, Fla.; native, West Indies (apparently endemic to Jamaica).