Plants usually perennial, occasionally annual in desert areas; cespitose and shortly rhizomatous. Culms 5-120 cm, unbranched. Leaves mostly basal; ligules of hairs; blades 2-5 mm wide. Inflorescences terminal, exceeding the upper leaves, dense, cylindrical to ovoid panicles, occasionally reduced to racemes; branches short, non-disarticulating; rachises concealed by the spikelets; disarticulation beneath the glumes. Spikelets laterally compressed, with 2-4 florets, only the basal florets bisexual, the next 2 florets usually staminate, the fourth floret, if present, sterile. Glumes subequal, clearly exceeding the florets, awned or unawned; lemmas firmly membranous, 3-veined basally, 5-7-veined distally, mucronate to shortly awned, awns shorter than 10 mm; anthers 3; ovaries glabrous. x = 10. Named for Carl Anton Fingerhuth (1798-1876), a German botanist and physician.

Fingerhuthia is a genus of two species, one native to southern Africa and western Asia, the other endemic to southern Africa. One species has been grown in the Flora region.

1.   Fingerhuthia africana Lehm.
Thimblegrass, Zulu Fescue

Plants cespitose and shortly rhizomatous. Culms 10-95 cm. Blades 2.5-40 cm long, 2-4 mm wide, scabrous distally. Panicles 1.5-5 cm, cylindrical or ovoid, cuneate below. Spikelets 4-5.5 mm. Glumes narrowly elliptic, ciliate on the keel and the distal portion of the margins; lowest lemmas 3.5-4 mm, glabrous, sometimes scabridulous, margins ciliate, apices obtuse and abruptly mucronate. 2n = 40.

Fingerhuthia africana is native to southern Africa and western Asia. It has been grown at the Santa Rita Experimental Range in Pima County, Arizona, but is not established in the Flora region.