Description:

• Perennial, rarely annual, tufted
• Leaf blade filiform to linear, flat or folded; ligule an unfringed membrane, often elongated
• Inflorescence a panicle, lax and open, rarely contracted; spikelets pedicelled
• Spikelet small, 3-6 mm long, shining, laterally compressed, disarticulating above glumes and between florets, rachilla pilose or rarely glabrous, distinctly elongated between florets, produced as a fine bristle; glumes ± equal, shorter to longer than spikelet, similar, subscarious to membranous with thin shining margins, keeled, mostly acute; lower glume 1-nerved; upper glume 1-3-nerved
• Florets usually 2, bisexual, rarely uppermost floret reduced; lemma similar in texture to firmer than glumes, lanceolate, rounded on back, obscurely 4-7-nerved, 2-4-lobed or lacerate-truncate at apex, awned from back near base; awn straight or geniculate, as long as to longer than body of lemma; callus minute, obtuse, usually hairy; palea ± as long as lemma, 2-keeled
• Stamens 3
• Ovary ellipsoid, glabrous; styles plumose above
• Caryopsis ellipsoid, glabrous
• x = 7, 13 (aneuploids, high polyploidy, B-chromosomes)

Nomenclature:

• *Deschampsia P.Beauv.
  • Palisot de Beauvois: 91 (1812)
  • Chippindall: 84 (1955)
  • Clayton: 91 (1970)
  • Clayton & Renvoize: 129 (1986)
  • Gibbs Russell et al.: 103 (1990)
  • Watson & Dallwitz: 307 (1994)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global: Species ± 40, temperate regions throughout the world and high-altitude tropics
• Southern Africa: Species 2, naturalised, Free State, Lesotho, Eastern Cape region bordering Lesotho and Western Cape