Common name: Sweet Vernal Grass
Anthoxanthum odoratum L. APNI* 
Description: Tufted perennial to 1 m high, smelling of coumarin.
Leaves with ligule 1–5 mm long, membranous, truncate; blade rolled in bud, flat, 2–5 mm wide, often hairy.
Inflorescence a narrow spike-like panicle 1–9 cm long. Spikelets 6–10 mm long, pedicellate, solitary, disarticulating above the glumes. Upper glume 7–9 mm long, exceeding the florets; lower 50% the length of the upper. Sterile lemmas 2 subequal, 3–3.5 mm long, with 2 blunt lobes, strongly laterally compressed, 5–7-nerved, pilose with golden hairs, the first short-awned from below the apex, the second with a longer, geniculate awn from near the base. Fertile lemma c. 2 mm long, shining, brown, circular. Palea as long as the lemma.
Flowering: spring–summer.
Distribution and occurrence: Widespread in mown or grazed areas. Native of Eur. & temp. Asia, naturalized in many countries.
NSW subdivisions: *NC, *CC, *SC, *NT, *CT, *ST, ?NWS, *SWS
Other Australian states: *Qld *Vic. *Tas. *W.A. *S.A.
Text by S. W. L. Jacobs & S. M. Hastings
Taxon concept: Flora of NSW 4 (1993)
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data
***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
|
