Description :

• Annual, tufted
• Leaf blade tapering to a rounded apex; ligule a fringed membrane
• Inflorescence a solitary, terminal, spike-like panicle, raceme or spike, sometimes inconspicuously 1-sided; spikelets solitary or paired, sometimes mixed on same inflorescence, sessile or subsessile or pedicelled, sometimes pairs unequally pedicelled
• Spikelet laterally compressed, disarticulating above glumes and between florets; glumes ± equal, as long as spikelet, similar, coriaceous with broad membranous margins, ± boat-shaped, rounded at apex, slightly asymmetrical, keeled, keel usually with prominent stalked glands, 5-8-nerved, awnless
• Florets 2, bisexual; lemma lanceolate to lanceolate-oblong, less firm than glumes, hyaline, 3-5-nerved, hairy or glabrous, awnless or mucronate; palea well developed, slightly shorter than lemma, narrow, sublinear, back and wings hyaline, 2-nerved, 2-keeled, keels prominent, thickened, hairy or glabrous
• Lodicules 2, cuneate, glabrous, shallowly 1-3-lobed, minute, fleshy
• Stamens 3
• Ovary glabrous; styles free, stigmas plumose, laterally exserted
• Caryopsis narrowly obovoid
• x = 7

Nomenclature:

• Prionanthium Desv.
  • Desvaux: 64 (1831)
  • Stapf: 455 (1899)
  • Chippindall: 270 (1955)
  • Clayton & Renvoize: 170 (1986)
  • Davidse: 149 (1988)
  • Gibbs Russell et al.: 276 (1990)
  • Watson & Dallwitz: 773 (1994)

Distribution & Notes:

• Southern Africa : Species 3, Western Cape, rare