Common name: Sea Couch Grass, Sea Couch, Sea Twitch
Elytrigia pungens (Pers.) Tutin APNI* Synonyms: Elymus pungens (Pers.) Melderis APNI*
Agropyron pungens Pers. APNI*
Description: Strongly rhizomatous perennial grass; culms to 1.1 m high, usually glaucous.
Leave glabrous; lamina involute, 10–20 cm long, 1–2 mm diam., with apex sharply pointed, smooth on outer surface, finely scabrous along raised nerves of inner surface; ligule truncate, glabrous, c. 0.5 mm long; auricles absent or reduced to short points.
Inflorescence a distichous spike 5–12 cm long, with 12–30 spikelets. Spikelets usually 5–7-flowered, 10–18 mm long; glumes subequal, narrowly ovate, 6–10 mm long, with apex obtuse to acute but not awned, 3–7 nerved, smooth or sparsely scabrous towards apex; lemma resembling glumes; palea slightly shorter than lemma.
Flowering: Flowers Sep. – January
Distribution and occurrence: Introduced as a weed in Canberra garden (South Highlands). Also naturalised in Victoria, throughout most of north America. Native of Europe. In Canberra, it is recorded as a weed of a garden.
NSW subdivisions: *ST
This species is spread by seed and locally by rhizomes.
Text by N.G. Walsh & B.J. Conn (2005)
Taxon concept: N.G. Walsh (1994)
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.
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