Stipagrostis ciliata (Desf.) De Winter

Densely caespitose perennial, up to 80 cm high. Leaf-blades filiform, rolled, 2-20 cm long, smooth, stiff, pungent, somewhat glaucous, flexuous. Panicle 10-25 cm long, contracted or somewhat loose. Spikelets pallid, sometimes with a purple spot at the base; glumes subequal, glabrous, 12-14 mm long; lemma (including the column) 10-11 mm long, smooth, passing gradually into the awn without an obvious column or column well-developed and up to 3.5 mm long; callus 2.5 mm long, acute, shortly pubescent with longer hairs at the base of the lemma; column glabrous, becoming detached at maturity with the conical upper portion of the lemma; central branch of the awn 4-5 on long, plumose in the upper two-thirds but with an excurrent naked tip; lateral branches glabrous, up to 25 mm long.

Distribution: Pakistan (Baluchistan, fide Bor 1970); North Africa from Morocco to Egypt; Sudan and Ethiopia; Arabia and the Middle East; Macaronesia.

Fl.& Fr. Per.: April-May.

Stipagrostis ciliata, the tall bushman grass, is a species of grass in the family Poaceae. It occurs in Namibia's Namib Desert and the Kalahari. The grass grows 30–100 centimetres (12–39 in) tall and can be annual or perennial dependent on the amount of rainfall. It can be distinguished by a ring of long white hair surrounding each node.