Themeda villosa (Poir.) A.Camus

Perennial. Culms tufted, stout, 2–3.5 m tall, 1–2 cm in diam. Leaf sheaths glabrous, basal sheaths strongly compressed; leaf blades ca. 100 × 0.7–1.5 cm, scabrid, gradually narrowed to the thick white midrib toward base, acuminate; ligule ca. 1 mm, ciliate. Compound panicle up to 1 m with many drooping branches, branches bearing several spathes, each spathe subtending a further spathe and usually a single spatheole with raceme; spatheoles 2–3.5 cm, minutely hispidulous; peduncle pilose at apex. Raceme composed of (1–)2 spikelet pairs and a terminal triad above the involucre of 2 homogamous pairs. Homogamous spikelets arising at slightly different levels, male or barren, 10–15 mm, narrowly lanceolate, wingless, shortly pubescent. Sessile spikelet 7–8 mm; callus 1–2 mm, acute; lower glume oblong-lanceolate, dorsally compressed with shallow central groove, densely brown strigose; upper lemma lanceolate, midvein produced into mucro or poorly developed short awn. Pedicelled spikelet 10–15 mm. Fl. and fr. Aug–Jan.

Sunny roadsides, sandbanks, river banks, grass jungles, abandoned fields, sometimes dominant, Eucalypt savannah; at elevations up to 1,700 metres

Young shoots are eaten as a salad. They are sweet.

Can be grown by seedlings.