The Palm grass is a lily-like rainforest plant that is widely grown for its foliage. It can be rather non-descript at first glance and the common name seems to do it little justice, since it is nowhere closely related to palms, nor to grasses for that matter. Having said this, M. capitulata does look like a palm seedling or a very robust grass. It was in fact part of the Lily family (Liliaceae) until the family got torn apart into a bunch of different families. Now the Palm grass is under an unfamiliar sounding family called the Hypoxidaceae.

The flowers of M. capitulata are not very conspicuous unless you assume the attitude of a botanist (which usually means face to the ground and butt up in the air). At the base of the plant there is a bunch very attractive yellow flowers arranged in a cluster (a capitula), hence the species epithet. The species was also previously known as Curculigo capitulata.