Pentameris pungens (H.P.Linder) Galley & H.P.Linder

Tufted biennial or weak perennial 200-500 mm high; base glabrous or hairy, hairs straight, adpressed; basal sheaths white, shiny, persistent; leaves basal; glands absent. Leaf blade to 120 x 2.5-4.0 mm; younger leaves often folded, rigid, hard, sometimes pungent, glabrous; old leaves flat and recurved; margins scabrid; sheath mouth glabrous rarely shortly hairy. Inflorescence somewhat contracted, 40-80(120) x 15-35(50) mm, with 20-50 spikelets; pedicels exposed, glabrous or scaberulous; axils hairy. Spikelet 11-15 mm long; glumes acuminate, glabrous or scaberulous all over, yellowish-brown to brown, flushed purple at base; lemma 4.5-5.5 mm long, untidily hairy along nerves, hairs 0.3-2.5 mm long, increasing in length from base to apex, usually hiding lobes; lateral awns 7-9 mm long, extending up to glume apices; central awn 17-20 mm long; palea hairy in upper half; anthers 3.3-4.0 mm long.