Plants perennial; cespitose, occasionally rhizomatous. Culms 60-110 cm, erect, glabrous, unbranched. Sheaths glabrous; ligules membranous, ciliate, cilia subequal to or longer than the membranous base. Inflorescences terminal, lanceolate or lance-ovate panicles, exceeding the leaves; branches 1 per node. Spikelets bisexual, lanceolate, with 5-10 florets; disarticulation above the glumes and between the florets. Glumes shorter than the adjacent lemmas, about 1/4 as long as the spikelets, lanceolate, glabrous, unawned; calluses densely pubescent; lemmas 5-, 7-, or 9-veined, lanceolate, densely pubescent below and glabrous above, apices truncate to rounded or obtuse, sometimes retuse, unawned; paleas shorter than the lemmas, glabrous, splitting down the midline as the caryopsis matures. Caryopses to 3 mm, suborbicular, concave, glabrous, amber, with 2 persistent hornlike style branches. x = unknown. Named for George Vasey (1822-1893), curator of the United States National Herbarium, and the Greek chloa, grass.

Vaseyochloa is a monotypic genus endemic to the coastal zone of southern Texas. Coelachyrum Hochst. & Nees, a small genus of Africa and southwestern Asia, has been suggested as its nearest relative.

1.   Vaseyochloa multinervosa (Vasey) Hitchc.
Texasgrass

Culms 60-110 cm. Ligules 1-3 mm; blades 16-35 cm long, 1-6 mm wide, glabrous, lower blades usually folded, upper blades flat. Panicles 10-30 cm long, 1-3 cm wide; branches 4-13 cm, ascending or the lower branches occasionally spreading, each axil with a tuft of hairs. Spikelets 10-16 mm long, 2.5-5 mm wide. Lower glumes 2.5-4 mm, 1-7-veined; upper glumes 4-5.5 mm, 5-9-veined; lemmas 5-7 mm; anthers 3, 0.5-2 mm. 2n = 56, 60, 68.

Vaseyochloa multinervosa grows in islands of live oaks within rolling sand dunes on the Texas mainland, North Padre Island, and on naturally occurring islands in the Laguna Madre of Texas.