| Culms 1–4 ft. Leaves involute. Panicle 4–6 in., ovate, dense. Awn seldom twisted | 3. D. bromoides. |
| Culms 2–5 ft. Leaves involute. Panicle 4–18 in., lax. Awn flattened and twisted at the base | 4. D. Raoulii. |
| †† Culms shorter, 6–18 in. Panicle small, 1–3 in. long; spikelets few, 3–12. | |
| Culms 6–18 in. Leaves involute, compressed. Spikelets 8–12. Nerves of flowering glume connected by transverse veinlets | 5. D. crassiuscula. |
| Culms 2–6 in. Leaves involute, flattened, erect, rigid, pungent-pointed, glaucous. Spikelets 3–8 | 6. D. pungens. |
| Culms 6–18 in., much branched below. Leaves very narrow, involute, terete, wiry. Spikelets 3–8; awn twisted | 7. D. australis. |
| Culms 6–12 in. Leaves flat or involute, not terete. Spikelets 4–8; awn not twisted | 8. D. oreophila. |
| Culms 9–14 in. Leaves flat, thin. Spikelets 6–12; awn twisted | 9. D. planifolia. |
| ** Two outer glumes longer than the spikelets. | |
| Culms 12–24 in., often pilose. Panicle 1–4 in., narrow. Flowering glume with two marginal tufts of hairs, but no transverse rings. Awn long | 10. D. pilosa. |
| Culms 3–30 in., usually glabrous. Panicle 1–4 in., narrow, compact. Flowering glume with 2 dense transverse rings of silky hairs. Awn long | 11. D. semiannularis. |
| Culms 3–12 in., glabrous. Panicle ¾–2 in. Flowering glume sparsely silky, transverse rings obscure. Awn hardly longer than the glume | 12. D. Buchanani. |
| Culms 8–9 in., glabrous. Panicle ½–1½ in. Flowering glume with 2 minute tufts of hairs on the margins (often confluent). Awn very short indeed | 13. D. nuda. |
1. D. Cunninghamii, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 332.—Densely-tufted, often forming large tussocks. Culms stout, 2–5 ft. high, ¼–½ in. diam. at the base, glabrous or more or less pilose. Leaves 1½–4 ft. long, ¼–⅓ in. broad, rigid and coriaceous, flat or concave, strongly nerved, midrib prominent beneath, glabrous or pilose on the margins and upper surface in the lower half of the leaf, margins scaberulous; sheaths rather lax, often ½ in. broad or even more, deeply grooved, usually silky-pilose in the grooves; ligules reduced to a transverse line of densely set short silky hairs. Panicle large, erect or inclined, effuse or compact, 6–18 in. long; branches few or many, solitary or binate or in alternate fascicles, 3–12 in. long; branchlets slender, capillary, scaberulous, few-flowered. Spikelets rather distant, pedicelled, ⅓–½ in. long without the awns, 3–7-flowered. Two outer glumes unequal, lanceolate, acute or acuminate, membranous, 3-nerved, the upper one shorter than the flowering glume above it. Flowering glumes clothed with long silky hairs at the base and along the lower half of the margins, glabrous elsewhere, 7–9-nerved, deeply 2-fid at the tip with the points produced into short awns; awn from between the lobes, about ⅓ in. long, straight or recurved, not flattened nor twisted at the
