Perennials. Leaf-blades flat. Inflorescence a dense, spike-like panicle. Spike-lets 24-flowered, usually only the lowermost floret bisexual, the succeeding 1-2 male and the uppermost barren, laterally compressed, the rhachilla articulated above the glumes but the spikelet eventually falling entire from the pedicel, those at the base of the panicle sterile; glumes equal, 1-nerved, hairy at least on the keel, awned; lemmas broader than the glumes, membranous with hyaline margins, keeled, with 3 main nerves and 211 addititional short nerves near the tip, blunt, shortly awned or mucronate; palea nearly as long as the lemma; stamens 3.

A genus of 2 species in South Africa, one of them extending northwards through Arabia to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Lower Taxon

• Fingerhuthia africana Lehm.

Related Synonym(s):

• Fingerhuthia affghanica Boiss. = Fingerhuthia africana Lehm.