Plants annual or perennial; cespitose or shortly rhizomatous. Culms 30-200 cm, unbranched; internodes semi-solid. Leaves cauline, not aromatic; sheaths shorter than the internodes, rounded; ligules membranous; blades flat to involute. Inflorescences terminal, solitary racemes of heterogamous subsessile-pedicellate spikelets pairs (rarely of 2 digitate spikelike branches), axes slender, without a translucent median groove; disarticulation beneath the pedicellate spikelets. Subsessile spikelets staminate or sterile, without a callus and unawned, otherwise similar to the pedicellate spikelets. Pedicels slender, not fused to the rames axes. Pedicellate spikelets bisexual; calluses sharp, strigose; glumes firm, enclosing the florets; lower glumes several-veined, encircling the upper glumes; upper glumes 3-veined; lower florets sterile; upper florets bisexual, lemmas firm but hyaline at the base, tapering to an awn; awns (4)6-15 cm, twisted, pubescent to plumose; paleas absent; anthers 3. x = 10. Name from the Greek trachys, rough, and pogon, beard, referring to the plumose awn of the bisexual florets.

Trachypogon is a tropical or warm-temperate genus that is native to Africa and tropical to subtropical America. Estimates of the number of species included range from one to ten. One species, Trachypogon secundus, is native to the Flora region, but some taxonomists (e.g., Dávila 1994) include it in T. plumosus (Humb. & Bonpl. ex Willd.) Nees and others (e.g., Judziewicz 1990) include it, T. plumosus, and various other taxa in T. spicatus (L. f.) Kuntze. The traditional treatment and nomenclature for North American plants is retained here, pending formal study of the taxa involved.

1.   Trachypogon secundus (J. Presl) Scribn.
Crinkle-Awn

Plants perennial. Culms 60-120 cm, erect; nodes appressed-hirsute. Sheaths sparsely appressed-pilose; ligules 2-5 mm, stiff, acute; blades usually 12-35 cm long, 3-8 mm wide, with a broad midrib. Racemes 10-18 cm, the internodes glabrous. Pedicellate spikelets 6-8 mm; glumes pilose; awns 4-6 cm, pilose below, with 1-2 mm hairs, nearly glabrous distally; anthers 4-5 mm, orange. 2n = 20.

Trachypogon secundus is found in sandy prairies, woodlands, rocky hills, and canyons, in well-drained soils at 500-2000 m. Statements about is range are difficult to make because of disagreement as to whether northern plants, such as those found in the Flora region, belong to the same species as those found elsewhere.

Trachypogon secundus resembles Heteropogon, differing in its longer, non-disarticulating inflorescence and shorter, pale awns. It rates as fairly good fodder when green, but is seldom abundant enough to be an important forage grass.