Styppeiochloa

Perennial, dense, sclerophyllous tufts, with hard, fibrous basal sheaths, forming thick, dense, fire-resistant mats. Leaf blade rolled, setaceous; ligule a fringe of hairs. Inflorescence a scanty, contracted panicle; spikelets appressed to branches; spikelets pedicelled. Spikelet laterally compressed, disarticulating above glumes; glumes unequal, shorter than spikelet, lanceolate, apex 3-lobed or entire, with short awn-point; lower glume 1-nerved; upper glume 1-3-nerved. Florets 2-5, bisexual; uppermost floret sterile or reduced to a lemma; lemma lanceolate, similar in texture to glumes, 3-5(7)-nerved, hairy on margins near base, lateral nerves glabrous or minutely hairy, incised, 3-lobed, lobes with awns or mucros, central awn straight, shorter than body of lemma; callus short and hairy; palea narrowly lanceolate, subequalling lemma. Lodicules 2, small, truncate, glabrous. Stamens 3. Ovary elliptic-oblong, glabrous; style bases knob-like. Caryopsis fusiform.