The characters in 25 varieties of Rhodes grass introduced from Africa have been studied with a view to improving on Australian Commercial. Only the diploid Katambora and a tetraploid variety from Kenya appeared to possess a higher yield potential than Commercial. Sixty per cent of the varieties are tetraploid, the rest diploid. A degree of association occurred between the level of ploidy and some Rhodes grass characters.Although Rhodes grass appears to be xenogamous, all the critical evidence points to an apodictic form of reproduction. Viable caryopses were extracted from harvested “seed” and the percentage of florets setting caryopses was low. Rhodes grass caryopses germinate fairly well and have a higher resistance than usual to irradiation by gamma r