Common name: Scaly Poa
Poa fax J.H.Willis & Court APNI* 
Description: Small erect annuals to c.50 cm tall. Culms slender, striate, slightly scabrous or rarely closely scabrid-hispid.
Sheaths thin, striate, the lower becoming loose, usually ± glabrous; ligule thinly membranous, obtuse to acute, 1–4 mm long; blade flat, thin, flaccid, mostly 2–5 cm long, 1–2.5 mm wide, linear, usually slightly scabrous on the margins and nerves.
Inflorescence long-exserted, 3–15 cm long, linear to oval-oblong, with few, solitary, short, appressed branches. Spikelets often rather clustered, very strongly compressed, ovate to oval-oblong, 5–13-flowered, up to 13 mm long. Glumes subacute to obtuse, thinly herbaceous, usually 3–5-nerved. Lemmas strongly keeled, ± linear when folded, very obtuse, prominently 9–11-nerved; palea linear, up to as long as the lemma.
Flowering: Flowers in response to rain and flooding.
Distribution and occurrence: In areas of moderately low rainfall and (probably) somewhat saline conditions.
NSW subdivisions: NWS, NWP, SWP, NFWP, SFWP
Other Australian states: Vic. W.A. S.A.
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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