Pentameris heptameris Steud.

Tufted perennial, 200-300 mm high, single or several shoots; basal sheath brown and soon rotting away; leaves cauline; glands absent. Leaf blade up to 80 x 0.5 mm, rolled, rigid, glabrous, margins smooth; sheath mouth glabrous; ligule a fringe of hairs. Inflorescence a contracted panicle, 30-50 x 10-30 mm, nodes hairy; pedicels obscured by spikelets, glabrous. Spikelets 5-6 mm long, laterally compressed, awned; glumes ± equal, 1-nerved, acuminate, hyaline, glabrous or scaberulous along keels. Florets 2; lemma 7-9-nerved, hairy all over on back, 2-lobed, each lobe extended into 1 or 2 awns, 6-10 mm long, as long as or exserted from glumes; central awn 10-15 mm long, twisted below; palea glabrous, awned; anther 1.5-2.1 mm long; ovary apex glabrous. Flowering time Nov., Dec.