Hyparrhenia familiaris Stapf

Caespitose perennial; culms 50–150 cm. high.. Leaf-blades up to about 30 cm. long, 5 mm. wide.. False panicle up to 60 cm. long, leafy, lax; spatheoles linear, 6–10 cm. long, reddish brown, the peduncles as long or a little shorter and bearing a beard of spreading yellow hairs towards the tip; racemes 1–2 cm. long, 3–5-awned per pair, ± glabrous, deflexed; raceme-bases unequal, the upper 4–5 mm. long, glabrous.. Homogamous pairs 1 at the base of the lower raceme, 2 at the base of the upper.. Sessile spikelet 7.5–8.5 mm. long, purplish, glabrous or occasionally white pubescent; callus 2.5–3 mm. long, pungent; awn 6–9 cm. long, hirtellous with fulvous hairs up to 1 mm. long.. Pedicelled spikelet with an awn 2–10 mm. long.

Savanna grassland.