Description: Tufted perennials or annuals of variable habit.
Leaves with ligule a fringe of hairs; blade flat or convolute.
Inflorescence an open to contracted or dense panicle.
Spikelets pedicellate, solitary, disarticulating above the glumes and between the lemmas; 2 bisexual florets (occasionally the upper reduced or absent). Glumes equal, acute, rounded on the back, membranous to scarious, 7–11-nerved, shorter than or as long as the lemmas. Lemmas 5–11-nerved, leathery or membranous, hairy on the back at least towards the base, awnless or with a terminal untwisted awn, or mucronate. Palea 2-fid or acute and entire, leathery to scarious, 2-keeled, the margins usually tightly enclosed by the lemma.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 40 species, Asia & Australia. Australia: c. 40 species (native), all States except Tas.
Text by S. W. L. Jacobs & K. L. McClay
Taxon concept:
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Lemma awned; palea awned or mucronate | 2 |
| Lemma awnless or mucronate; palea usually awnless | 4 |
| 2 | Glumes glabrous; awns on palea short, usually less than 3 mm long | Eriachne pallescens |
| Glumes hirsute with tubercle-based hairs
Back to 1 | 3 |
| 3 | Awns on palea half the length of lemma awn and usually less than 10 mm long; inland species | Eriachne aristidea |
| Palea awn less than 15% the length of lemma awn; lemma more than 15 mm long; coastal species
Back to 2 | Eriachne rara |
| 4 | Culm base densely woody and bulbous; lemmas 6–7 mm long | Eriachne helmsii |
| Culm bases often thickened but not bulbous, glabrous or hairy but not woolly; lemmas 2–7 mm long
Back to 1 | 5 |
| 5 | Glumes 60–75% the length of the spikelet; lemmas pubescent with sparse appressed hairs to almost glabrous | Eriachne glabrata |
| Glumes about the same length as the spikelet; lemmas villous at least in lower 60%
Back to 4 | 6 |
| 6 | Tufted perennials 30–45 cm high, often with sharp-pointed leaves; spikelets 5–6 mm long | Eriachne mucronata |
| Delicate annuals 10–15 cm high; leaves not sharp-pointed but bearing stiff tubercle-based hairs; spikelets 3–4 mm long
Back to 5 | Eriachne pulchella |
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