Ehrharteae
Annual or perennial. Ligule usually membranous, sometimes reduced to a rim, or a row of hairs. Collar frequently with tuberculate hairs. Leaf-blade linear, flat to convolute or setaceous, cross-veins present or 0. Inflorescence a panicle or sometimes a unilateral raceme. Spikelets all alike, laterally compressed, 3-flowered with 2 lower florets Ø and reduced to lemmas, upper floret ⚥; disarticulation above glumes but not between florets; rachilla usually not prolonged. Glumes 2, persistent, < or > florets, sometimes very small, membranous. Lemma of Ø florets coriaceous, awned or awnless, both, or at least the upper, = lemma of ⚥ floret, awn, if present, ± strict, terminal; lemma of ⚥ floret firmly cartilaginous to coriaceous, 5-7-nerved, entire, awnless. Palea hyaline, with 0, 1, 2, or rarely 3-5 nerves. Lodicules 2 or 0. Stamens 6 or 4, 3, 2, or 1. Caryopsis ellipsoid; embryo small; hilum linear, epiblast absent.
Key
4 genera of temperate Australasia and South Africa.
The affinities of the tribe Ehrharteae are incompletely resolved but they are clearly an associate of the Oryzeae [Tateoka, T. Nucleus 3: 81-110 (1960), Bot. Gaz. 124: 264-270 (1963); Clayton and Renvoize (1986 op. cit.)]. The tribe was misplaced in the Bambusoideae [Kellogg, E. A. and Campbell, C. S. in Soderstrom, T. R., et al. (Eds) Grass Systematics and Evolution pp. 310-324 (1987); Soreng, R. J. and Davis, J. I. Bot. Rev. 64: 1-85 (1998)].
Willemse, L. P. M. Blumea 28: 181-194 (1982) treated Microlaena as part of a broader Ehrharta; names were already available there for two New Zealand species. Petriella Zotov non Curzi was similarly fused in Ehrharta where two names were also available. Here we accept three genera: Ehrharta, with four naturalised species; Microlaena with four species, indigenous and/or endemic; and Zotovia for three endemic species two of which Zotov, V. D. T.R.S.N.Z. 73: 235 (1943) had included in his invalid Petriella.
