Leptochloa is a genus of grasses in the Poaceae family. Members of the genus are commonly known as sprangletops. Leptochloa chinensis originated in tropical Asia and is distributed throughout South-East Asia, Burma, Sri Lanka, India, China, Japan, Australia and from East to South Africa.
Leptochloa chinensis (L.) An aquatic or semi-aquatic tufted annual or perennial, with stout to slender, erect or geniculate culms up to 1.5 m tall, often rooting at the lower nodes. Leaf-sheath loose, subglaucous, smooth, up to 10 cm long; ligule a fringed, hairy membrane, 1-2 mm long; leaf-blade linear, up to 50 cm x 1 cm, long-attenuate, flat or folded, scabrid above. Inflorescence 10-60 cm long, composed of numerous slender racemes scattered along an elongate central axis; racemes flexuous, 2-13 cm long, erect or laxly ascending; spikelets 3-7 flowered, narrowly elliptical-oblong, 2-3 mm, subsessile, often purplish, disarticulating above the glumes and between the florets.