Eragrostis laniflora Benth.

Rhizomatous perennials, forming tussocks to 90 cm wide; rootbase thick, woolly. Culms 21–75 cm high, wiry, sometimes hirsute. Leaves scabrous or hispid, sometimes hirsute; lower sheaths overlapping, often woolly; ligule a fringe of hairs, c. 0.7 mm long; blade rolled or flat and to 3 mm wide, stiff, firmly pointed. Panicles loosely contracted, 8–15.5 cm long, 2–5 cm wide, scabrous; branches usually simple, naked near axil. Spikelets shortly pedicellate, linear-oblong or elliptic, compressed, sometimes curved, 6–37 mm long, 1.8–3 mm wide; rachilla flexuose or straight; florets 9–62, closely overlapping. Glumes deciduous, ±equal, ovate, 1.5–2.3 mm long; upper glume usually ciliate on lower margins. Lemma ovate, 2–3 mm long, obtuse, membranous with broad hyaline margins, scaberulous or granular towards apex; hairy near base on margins or between lateral nerves and margin; lower lemmas often falling before rachilla segment. Palea deciduous with lemma or with rachilla segment, hyaline; body elliptic or obovate, often pouched; keels hairy near base, ciliolate above; flaps narrower than body. Stamens 3; anthers 0.9–1.2 mm long. Grain not compressed, obtusely trigonous or quadrangular, 0.5–0.8 mm long, flat or concave on back.

Grows in deep, red and red-brownsandy loams; on plains, levees, ridges, dunes and interdunes, and in associationwith limestone and quartzite.