Hookerochloa eriopoda

Tufted perennial, culms smooth, to 150 cm high. Leaf-blades fine, inrolled, nearly triangular in section, to 35 cm long and c. 0.6 mm diam., scabrous; sheaths smooth, brown and shining, readily shredding and becoming fibrous; ligules 0.5–2 mm long. Panicle to 30 cm long, loose to rather dense, the branches remaining more or less erect. Spikelets 3–5-flowered, 9–15 mm long, wholly green or glumes and/or lemmas purple tinged toward distal margins; glumes 3.5–8 mm long, the upper usually c. 1 mm longer than lower, smooth or scabrous along the nerves; lemma oblong, 5–8 mm long, smooth or minutely scabrous, obtuse or emarginate at the apex when flattened out, the midvein sometimes minutely exserted as a fine awn to c. 1 mm long; callus bearded with a tuft of white hairs c. 0.5 mm long; palea equal to lemma. Flowers Nov.–Feb.