Pentameris macrocalycina (Steud.) Schweick.

Tufted perennial, 0.4-1.1 m high; culm branching basally. Leaf blade 30-350 x 1.5 mm, rigid, erect, glabrous, needle-like, sometimes pungent, permanently folded into a cylinder with deep adaxial groove when seen in cross section; leaf sheath tightly appressed to culm, bearded at mouth; ligule a fringe of hairs. Inflorescence a lanceolate, contracted panicle, 60-120 mm long. Spikelets 16-30 x 2.5-10.0 mm, laterally compressed; glumes ± equal, much longer than spikelet, 1-nerved, glabrous. Florets 2; lemma body 3.5-5.5 mm long, not keeled, hairy from between nerves; lobes acuminate, 1.3-4.0 mm long, adnate for most of their length to a 7.5-14.0 mm long lateral awn; central awn 15-26 mm long, twisted below; palea 6.5-11.0 mm long; anther 4.2-6.5 mm long; ovary with branched hairs at apex. Flowering time Sept.-Dec. Fruit an achene, 3.6 x 1.2 mm; broadly fusiform, surface colliculately sculptured.