Elegia thyrsifera Pers.

Plants large, clumped or tufted, 1-2 m high; rhizomes present. Culms unbranched, round (not compressed), solid or with small central cavity, smooth; sterile branches absent at nodes. Leaf sheaths > 1 per culm, caducous, loosely convolute, mucro absent or minute; upper 1/3 similar in colour and texture to basal 2/3. Male inflorescences with 50-500 or more spikelets, spathes caducous, as high as spikelets, chartaceous. Female inflorescences with 50-500 spikelets; bracts large 2-4.5 mm long, chartaceous, awn almost 1/2 as long as bract; spathes longer than spikelets, caducous. Ovary unilocular; styles 3, white plumose, bases on a pillar. Flowering time Nov.-Jan. Fruit an indehiscent nut, triangular in cross section; elaiosome absent.