The present delimitation follows Webster (1987, 1988), who redefined generic limits in Brachiaria and the closely related Urochloa to exclude all but the type species (B. eruciformis) from the former genus. Webster’s (1987, 1988) analyses indicated that some of the morphological characters used traditionally to separate the two genera, such as orientation of spikelets on the inflorescence branches, were unreliable. Instead, he used a number of minor spikelet characters to separate the two and, in the process, transferred nearly all of the species traditionally treated in Brachiaria to Urochloa. To further complicate the problem, the typification of Brachiaria is poorly understood, and Veldkamp (1996) has submitted a proposal to conserve B. eruciformis as the type of the genus in an effort to stabilize application of the generic name. In general, however, the two groups are uncomfortably similar in overall morphological variation, and may be reclassified as a single genus at some point in the future (Clayton and Renvoize, 1986). If so, Urochloa is the older of the two names and has priority.