Common name: Hooker's Fescue
Hookerochloa hookeriana (Hook.f.) E.B.Alexeev APNI* Synonyms: Austrofestuca hookeriana (F.Muell.) S.W.L.Jacobs APNI*
Festuca hookeriana F.Muell. APNI*
Description: Erect, caespitose, subglabrous perennials to c. 1.2 m tall.
Culms ± smooth, striate, 2–3-noded. Sheaths ± smooth, striate, open to their bases, the lower ones often persisting as brownish fibres (tow) around the bases; ligule membranous, to 3.5 mm long, obtuse; blade flat, folded when young, linear to almost lanceolate in outline, acute, rather prominently channelled below, 5–40 cm long, 2–4 mm wide, often slightly auriculate at the base, scabrous on the margins and rather scabrous on both surfaces.
Inflorescence exserted, very loose, spreading or somewhat nodding, c. 30 cm long, branches long, slender. Spikelets laterally compressed, 4–5-flowered, 9–13 mm long, green or purplish. Glumes lanceolate, unequal or equal, 5.5–8 mm long, lower acute, 1–3-nerved; upper glume acute or mucronate, 3-nerved. Lemmas very narrow-lanceolate in outline, entire and acute at the apex or minutely bifid, rather obscurely 5–11-nerved, c. 8 mm long; palea lanceolate, shortly bifid.
Flowering: Spring.
Distribution and occurrence: South from Bundanoon. Grows in open forest or grassland in swampy places.
NSW subdivisions: CT, ST
Other Australian states: Vic. Tas.
Text by Jacobs, Whalley & Wheeler; entered L.J. Murray Sep 2009
Taxon concept: Grasses of NSW Edition 4 (2008) Jacobs, Whalley & Wheeler; previously Austrofestuca hookeriana 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.
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