Buergersiochloa was described by Pilger in 1914 with B. bambusoides as the only species. A second species was added by S. T. Blake in 1946. Very little is known about this genus; the plants appear to be very rare in lowland primary forests of New Guinea and only 11 collections are presently known, nine of which were directly available for this study, while of a tenth extensive descriptions and drawings have been published. As was already pointed out by Pilger Buergersiochloa is evidently related to Olyra Linné. Phytogeographically this is very interesting, as Olyra belongs to the Olyreae, a tribe of the Bambusoideae practically restricted to the forests of Central- and South America. Only O. latifolia Linné is found also in Africa and Madagascar (probably not in the Mascarenes as indicated by Hubbard, 1959). Some have included the genera Pharus Linné and Leptaspis R. Br. in the Olyreae (e.g. Pilger, 1954), the latter genus occurring in New Guinea also, but Hubbard (1959) and Jacques-Félix (1962) have convincingly demonstrated that these genera belong to a separate tribe, the Phareae. Calderón & Soderstrom (1973) have even excluded it from the Bambusoideae.