Description:

• Annual or short-lived perennial, tufted
• Leaf blade expanded, broadly lanceolate, cross veins present (more visible on lower surface), amplexicaul at base; ligule an unfringed membrane
• Inflorescence an open panicle; spikelets solitary, pedicels long, slender
• Spikelet laterally compressed, disarticulating above glumes and between florets; glumes unequal, similar, shorter than spikelet, keeled, obtuse to broadly ovate, 3- or 4-nerved, middle nerve excurrent into a short awn or mucro
• Florets many, all bisexual though smaller at apex; lemma similar in texture to glumes, chartaceous, glabrous, obscurely 5-7-nerved, apex shortly 2-lobed or emarginate, middle nerve running out into a short mucro between lobes; palea almost equalling lemma, 2-keeled, ciliolate on keels, membranous, inflexed margins very narrow
• Stamens 2 or 3
• Ovary glabrous; styles distinct, plumose
• Caryopsis subglobose
• x = 12 (polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

• Megastachya P.Beauv.
  • Palisot de Beauvois: 74 (1812)
  • Phillips: 139 (1951)
  • Chippindall: 45 (1955)
  • Clayton: 161 (1970)
  • Launert: 139 (1971)
  • Clayton & Renvoize: 160 (1986)
  • Gibbs Russell et al.: 208 (1990)
  • Watson & Dallwitz: 585 (1994)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global: Species 1.: Megastachya mucronata (Poir.) P.Beauv., tropical and southern Africa
• Southern Africa: N KwaZulu-Natal