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| Common names: | |
| Frequency: | |
| Status: | Native |
| Description: |
Caespitose perennial; culms up to 200 cm high. Leaf sheaths at the base of the plant usually white-pubescent, sometimes glabrous, rarely tomentose; leaf laminas up to 40 cm × 5 mm, rigid, glaucous, harsh. False panicle c. 30 cm long, narrow, moderately dense; spatheoles 3–5 cm long, linear, russet coloured; peduncles flexuous, a little longer than the spatheoles, with spreading white tubercle-based hairs above; racemes 1.5–2 cm long, 6–10-awned per pair, white-hirsute, terminally exserted, at least some of them deflexed; internodes 2–3 mm long; raceme-bases unequal, the superior 2–3.5 mm long, hirsute, sometimes with a few stiff bristles or sometimes glabrous. Homogamous spikelets similar to the pedicelled spikelets, a single pair at the base of the inferior or both racemes. Sessile spikelets 4.5–5.5 mm long; callus 0.7–1.2 mm long, linear to narrowly cuneate; inferior glume narrowly lanceolate, pubescent to villous with white hairs; awn 1.8–3.6 cm long, the column pubescent with hairs 0.2–0.5 mm long. Pedicelled spikelets 5–7 mm long, linear-lanceolate, pubescent to villous, acute and muticous at the apex; callus absent; pedicel-tooth 0.1–0.5 mm long, subulate. |
| Type location: |
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| Notes: | |
| Derivation of specific name: | |
| Habitat: | Growing in deciduous bushland, wooded grassland and dambos, at high altitude |
| Altitude range: (metres) | 1230 - 1600 m |
| Flowering time: | |
| Worldwide distribution: | Throughout tropical and South Africa, but mainly in the southern half of the continent and rather scattered elsewhere, probably introduced in Australia |
| FZ divisions: | T |
| Growth form(s): | |
| Endemic status: | |
| Red data list status: | |
| Insects associated with this species: | |
| Spot characters: | Display spot characters for this species |
| Literature: |
Cope, T.A. (2002). Poaceae Flora Zambesiaca 10(4) Pages 109 - 110. Mapaura, A. & Timberlake, J. (eds) (2004). A checklist of Zimbabwean vascular plants Southern African Botanical Diversity Network Report No. 33 Sabonet, Pretoria and Harare Page 105. |