[2] Carl Peter Thunberg also noted the use in thatching in 1793,[5] as did English botanist John Lindley in 1846.

[6] Thurnberg notes the Dutch East India Company had a farm at Zeekoe Valley (17 km SSE of the Castle of Good Hope), where the reed was cultivated.

He describes its use at the Cape of Good Hope as follows: A bundle or sheath, after it is cut with a sickle is held by the top, and all the shorter stalks that are loose in it, are shaken off from it.

A roof made of it lasts 20 or 30 years, and would last much longer if the south-east wind did not blow a great deal of dirt between the thatch, in consequence of which it rots the sooner.Elegia tectorum was later called Chondropetalum tectorum, but cladistic analysis, conducted by Moline and Linder (2005) found that the genera of Chondropetalum and Dovea were imbedded in Elegia.

[1] In cultivation in the UK this plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.