Description :

• Annual, tufted or culm solitary
• Leaf blade linear, flat or rolled; sheaths rather loose, smooth and glabrous; ligule an unfringed membrane
• Inflorescence a panicle, spike-like or open, rarely a raceme; spikelets pedicelled, ± secund
• Spikelet 6-20 mm long, laterally compressed, usually disarticulating above glumes; glumes unequal, usually shorter than spikelet, dissimilar, rounded on back, awnless or awned; lower glume sometimes minute, 0-1-nerved; upper glume 1-3-nerved, acute to acuminate
• Florets 2-many, bisexual, sometimes upper ones reduced to lemma; lemma tapered, 3-5-nerved, entire, awned; awn median, apical, straight, more than half as long as to longer than body of lemma; callus short, glabrous; palea 2-keeled, hyaline
• Lodicules 2, unequally lobed
• Stamens 1 or 2, rarely 3
• Ovary glabrous or minutely hairy at apex
• Caryopsis linear or ellipsoid
• x = 7 (polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

• *Vulpia C.C.Gmel.
  • Gmelin: 8 (1805)
  • Stapf: 723 (1900)
  • Chippindall: 59 (1955)
  • Hubbard: 63 (1970)
  • Stace & Cotton: 154 (1980)
  • Clayton & Renvoize: 96 (1986)
  • Gibbs Russell et al.: 354 (1990)
  • Watson & Dallwitz: 1003 (1994)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global : Species ± 23, temperate regions, mostly Mediterranean
• Southern Africa : Species 4, naturalised, Mpumalanga, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, Northern, Western and Eastern Cape