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

Tufted perennial, 200-600 mm high; base hairy or glabrous, usually with burnt-off leaf sheaths; leaves basal; glands absent. Leaf blade 60-200 x 0.5-1.5 mm, rolled, rigid, apices sometimes pungent, glabrous, margins smooth, sheath mouth glabrous or with a ring of hairs; ligule a fringe of hairs. Inflorescence a contracted panicle, 25-80 x 15-60 mm, nodes glabrous or hairy; pedicels glabrous or scaberulous. Spikelets 10-12 mm long, laterally compressed, awned; glumes ± equal, 1-nerved, yellow, glabrous or scaberulous along keels. Florets 2; lemmas 7-9-nerved, densely hairy; lateral awns 4-6 mm long, as long as glumes, central awn 12-13 mm long, twisted below; palea puberulous between keels; anther 3.5-4.0 mm long; ovary apex glabrous. Flowering time Nov.-Jan.