Description: Dioecious perennials forming dense, stemmy tussocks or hummocks. Culms cane-like, much-branched and grooved along one side.
Ligule a row of hairs; blade short, readily disarticulating at sheath junction.
Inflorescence of globular condensed leafy panicles with much-shortened internodes, each with prominent chaffy bracteoles with rigid tips. Spikelets dimorphous, unisexual, slightly dorsally compressed, each with 2 florets. Style long, very slender; stigmas densely plumose. Male spikelets with 2 male florets. Female spikelets with 2 florets, lower sterile, upper female.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 1 species, endemic to the interior of Australia. Australia: 1 species, endemic. On sand dunes and lunettes.
Derivation: from the Greek for ‘pair’ and ‘grass’, referring to the separate male and female plants.
Text by Jacobs, S.W.L., Whalley, R.D.B. & Wheeler, D.J.B.
Taxon concept: Grasses of New South Wales, Fourth Edition (2008).
| One species in NSW: Zygochloa paradoxa |
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