English: Introduced, warm-season, perennial, densely-tufted grass usually 50-90 cm tall. Lowest leaf sheaths are shortly hairy. Flowerheads are a primary axis of racemes (7-25 cm long) with 3-7 branches; each branch has 4 rows spikelets. Spikelets are dorsally flattened disc-like 2-flowered and 3-4 mm long; the lower glume is absent. A native of south America, it was the most commonly sown grass on the NSW north coast pre-1960 and is still sown today; now naturalised in many habitats. Grows on soils from acid low fertility sands to neutral fertile alluvial clays.Flowerheads are susceptible to infection from paspalum ergot (Claviceps paspali), a black (rarely orange) fungal infection of the flowerhead, which is toxic to stock and causes the flowerheads to be sticky in summer.