Elegia thyrsoidea Pillans

Plants clumped, 1.0-1.5 m high; rhizomes spreading, unbranched. Culms unbranched, round (not compressed), solid or with a small central cavity, smooth or finely rugulose; sterile branches absent at nodes. Leaf sheaths > 1 per culm, caducous, loosely convolute; upper 1/3 similar in colour and texture to the basal 2/3. Male inflorescences with 50-500 spikelets, spathes caducous, taller than spikelets, cartilaginous. Female inflorescences with 6-20 spikelets; bracts small, 0.5-1.0 mm long, cartilaginous with a minute awn or awn absent; spathes longer than spikelets, persistent, cartilaginous. Ovary unilocular; styles 3, white and plumose, bases free. Flowering time Sept. Fruit an indehiscent nut, elliptical in cross section.