Common name: Mexican feather grass
Nassella tenuissima (Trin.) Barkworth APNI* Description: Densely capitosa perennials to c. 70 cm tall. Culms 2–4-noded.
Sheaths tight around the culms, glabrous and smooth; ligule 0.5–2.5 mm long, ontuse or truncate, blade straight or curving, convolute filiform, setaceous, to 60 cm long, 0.25–0.5 mm diam.
Inflorescence contracted and at first more or less included in the upper sheath. Spikelets 5–10 mm long (excluding awn). Glumes much longer than the floret, 3-nerved; lower 8–10 mm long, upper 5–7 mm long. Lemma obsurely 5-nerved, antrorsely scabrous upwards; awn more or less straight, 5–9 cm long, rather tardily deciduous; callus shortly oblique, bearded; palea nerveless.
Distribution and occurrence: Native to southern USA, Central and South America. Introduced as an ornamental and now escaping from cultivation.
NSW subdivisions: *NWS, *SWS
Other Australian states: *Vic.
Text by Jacobs, S.W.L., Whalley, R.D.B. & Wheeler, D.J.B.
Taxon concept: Grasses of New South Wales, Fourth Edition (2008).
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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