Imperata is a cosmopolitan grass genus with species well distributed across the American continent. During taxonomic studies of the genus, we observed problems in the typification of five names of Imperata species from the New World: I. arundinacea var. americana, I. brasiliensis, I. brasiliensis var. mexicana, I. brevifolia, and I. minutiflora. In this paper, we designate lectotypes for these names and present images of the chosen lectotypes.