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It’s a loosely tufted annual or short-lived perennial grass, up to 60 cm high. STEM: Tough and wiry. LEAF: The leaf blades are stout, wavy and are blue-green in colour. It can be 70 mm long and up to 12 mm wide with short hairs arranged on the leaf’s margins. The base of the leaf blade is rounded at the junction with the sheath. The ligule is a ciliated membrane. INFLORESCENCE: An attractive long and slender spike. SPIKELETS: Small (1.2–2.7 mm long), rounded at the base and without a definite callus, each with two awns which are purple or red in colour. The spikelets are densely packed along the rhachis.

Due to its relatively few leaves this type of grass has a low grazing value. It is often a pioneer in disturbed places, along roadsides and sandy soils. If dominant in a specific area, this grass serves as an indicator of overgrazing or drought conditions. It is sometimes regarded as a weed, but is easy to control mechanically.

In South Africa this grass occurs is the Limpopo, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, North-West, Free state and KwaZulu provinces.

Its species name ‘patens’ means spreading, diverging from the axis at almost 90 degrees.

Far off record? Maybe more common in the Magaliesberg. Tree was too tall to reach any leaves and only browsed coppice at ground level. Further down the gorge must be many more. In the Groot Marico they call it the hoederspoor boom.

Alive and well in NW Province. Never thought I would come to the Groot Marico and see this. The owner said the little river never stopped flowing through the worst droughts. Active regeneration visible.