Pentameris microphylla (Nees) Galley & H.P.Linder

Cushion-or sometimes mat-forming perennial, ± 300 mm high; leaves in basal rosettes; basal sheaths brown and soon rotting away; glands on pedicels. Leaf blade up to 50 x 3 mm, rigid, glabrous, margins scabrid, sheath mouth hairy; ligule a fringe of hairs. Inflorescence an open panicle, 60-70 x 60-80 mm, nodes glabrous; pedicels with stalked glands. Spikelets 3 mm long, laterally compressed, awnless; glumes ± equal, 1-nerved, acute, straw-coloured, glabrous or scaberulous along keels. Florets 2; lemma truncate, 7-9-nerved, hairy basally; palea glabrous; anther 1 mm long; ovary apex glabrous. Flowering time Dec.