Perennial veldt grass

Ehrharta calycina, the perennial veldt grass, is a tufted perennial grass of the family Poaceae native to southern Africa and naturalised in Mediterranean-climate regions of California, Australia, Chile and southern Europe, where it is often considered invasive. It forms loose to dense tussocks with erect to ascending culms 30–90 cm tall arising from a fibrous root system and short rhizomes. The leaf blades are flat to slightly involute, 5–20 cm long and 2–5 mm wide, often glaucous, with smooth to scabrid surfaces and a short, membranous ligule. The inflorescence is an open, lax panicle 7–20 cm long, with slender, spreading branches bearing solitary spikelets. Each spikelet is 4–7 mm long, laterally compressed, and contains a single fertile floret subtended by two distinctive sterile lemmas — a diagnostic feature of the genus Ehrharta. At maturity the spikelets disarticulate, often acquiring a purplish hue. The species favours sandy soils on coastal dunes, open shrublands, woodland clearings, roadsides and disturbed ground, and is highly fire-adapted.