Description :

• Annual or perennial (often short-lived), tufted
• Leaf blade linear, flat or folded, tapering, acute; ligule a narrow, fringed membrane
• Inflorescence terminal, solitary (rarely paired), dense, 1-sided spike, often ciliate or villous; spikelets solitary or paired, subsessile, alternate in 2 rows on a tough rachis
• Spikelet cuneate, laterally compressed, disarticulating above glumes, not between florets; glumes ± equal, nearly to as long as spikelet, similar, membranous, glabrous, 1-nerved, acute, acuminate, awnless or awn-tipped from near apex; upper glume ± equal to spikelet (excluding awns)
• Florets 4-7, lower florets bisexual, upper florets sterile and reduced to clavate lemmas; sterile lemma glabrous to rarely hairy, awnless; fertile lemma firmer in texture than glumes, coriaceous, keeled, 3-5-nerved, usually hairy on lateral nerves and keel, entire or 2-lobed, with a subterminal central awn; awn 3-11 mm long, straight; callus acute, hairy; palea ciliolate on keels
• Lodicules 2, ± oblong, glabrous
• Stamens 3
• Ovary oblong, glabrous; styles distinct, plumose above
• Caryopsis (achene) oblong; pericarp loose
• x = 10

Nomenclature:

• Tetrapogon Desf.
  • Desfontaines: 388 (1799)
  • Chippindall: 198 (1955)
  • Pilger: 100 (1956)
  • Launert: 202 (1970)
  • Renvoize: 347 (1974)
  • Clayton & Renvoize: 236 (1986)
  • Gibbs Russell et al.: 332 (1990)
  • Watson & Dallwitz: 933 (1994)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global : Species 5, Middle East, India and Africa
• Southern Africa : Species 1: Tetrapogon tenellus (Roxb.) Chiov., N Namibia, Mpumalanga and Northern Province