Elymandra

Annuals or perennials. Rhachis internodes and pedicels linear. Inflorescence consisting of paired racemes subtended by spatheoles and crowded in a false panicle. Each raceme borne on a stalk (raceme-base); the raceme-bases filiform, unequal. Lower raceme with a single pair of olive-green homogamous spikelets at the base. Sessile spikelet: callus applied obliquely to the apex of the internode with its tip free; lower glume rounded on the back, becoming dark brown; upper glume usually awned; lower floret reduced to a hyaline lemma; upper lemma 2-lobed, bearing an awn with a hirsute column. Pedicellate spikelet male or barren, narrowly lanceolate, olive-green tinged with brown; callus well-developed.

Elymandra is a genus of African and South American plants in the grass family. Most known species are native to Africa; one is found in Brazil.

Species Elymandra androphila (Stapf) Stapf - from Senegal to Angola Elymandra archaelymandra (Jacq.-Fél.) Clayton - Guinea, Senegal, Benin, Sierra Leone Elymandra gossweileri (Stapf) Clayton - from Senegal to Angola Elymandra grallata (Stapf) Clayton from Gambia to KwaZulu-Natal Elymandra lithophila (Trin.) Clayton - Brazil(State of Minas Gerais), Zaïre to Zimbabwe Elymandra subulata Jacq.-Fél. - Guinea, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone