Description :

• Annual or perennial, tufted, decumbent to mat-forming, stoloniferous or not
• Leaf blade expanded or rolled; ligule a fringed membrane to a fringe of hairs
• Inflorescence a panicle or single spike or raceme, contracted or capitate, rarely partially enclosed by a much enlarged flag leaf and disarticulating below flag leaf and falling as a unit, secund or spikelets 2-ranked; spikelets solitary
• Spikelet 1.5-10 mm long, laterally to not noticeably compressed, usually disarticulating above glumes and tardily between florets; glumes ± equal to unequal, shorter to longer than spikelet, similar, acute to acuminate, 3-7-nerved, glabrous or sometimes with tubercle-based glassy hairs, awnless, rarely awned
• Florets 2-5(-10), bisexual; uppermost floret sometimes reduced; lemma less firm to similar in texture to glumes, entire, without lobes (rarely emarginate with minutely awned lobes), acute to long-acuminate, 5-9-nerved, with hairs acute or club-shaped in marginal rows or fringes, or variously scattered; awnless, rarely with a slender, straight awn; callus short, glabrous; palea elliptic, linear or obovate, acute, rounded or sometimes truncate or bilobed, with tufts of long hairs on margins
• Lodicules 2, obtriangular
• Stamens 3
• Ovary glabrous
• Caryopsis ellipsoid or obovoid
• x = 6

Nomenclature:

• Tribolium Desv.
  • Desvaux: 64 (1831)
  • Renvoize: 795 (1985)
  • Clayton & Renvoize: 169 (1986)
  • Gibbs Russell et al.: 339 (1990)
  • Watson & Dallwitz: 959 (1994)
  • Linder & Davidse: 445 (1997)
• Lasiochloa Kunth
  • Kunth: 556 (1832)
  • Chippindall: 116 (1955)
• Plagiochloa Adamson & Sprague
  • Adamson & Sprague: 89 (1941)
  • Chippindall: 113 (1955)
• Urochlaena Nees ab Esenbeck
  • Nees ab Esenbeck: 437 (1841)
  • Stapf: 700 (1900)
  • Chippindall: 117 (1955)
  • Clayton & Renvoize: 170 (1986)
  • Gibbs Russell et al.: 350 (1990)

Distribution & Notes:

• Southern Africa : Species ± 10, S Namibia, western regions of Northern, Western and Eastern Cape