Common name: Short Wallaby Grass
Rytidosperma carphoides (F.Muell. ex Benth.) Connor & Edgar APNI* Synonyms: Austrodanthonia carphoides (Benth.) H.P.Linder APNI*
Danthonia carphoides F.Muell. ex Benth. APNI*
Description: Rather small, caespitose perennial to 0.5 m high, erect or somewhat geniculate at the nodes.
Culms smooth, slender, much exceeding the leaves, c. 3-noded. Sheaths shorter than the internodes, usually pilose; ligule reduced to a rim of short cilia, 0.5–1 mm long; blade fine, usually inrolled, pointed, more or less setaceous, usually pilose, 3–20 cm long.
Inflorescence ovate, c. 1.5–4 cm long, compact, dense but with a few spikelets. Spikelets 3–5-flowered, greenish tinged with purple and at length straw-coloured; 7–10 mm long. Glumes with a wide, membranous margin, 5–9-nerved. Lemmas 4–6 mm long, pilose on the back, c. 9-nerved; lateral lobes 2 mm long, obtuse, acute or acuminate, not or very minutely awned; central awn reflexed; palea rather broad-obovate, pubescent on the back.
Flowering: Flowers spring to summer.
Distribution and occurrence: In grassland or woodland on heavy soils.
NSW subdivisions: CC, NT, CT, ST, CWS, SWS, NWP, SWP
Other Australian states: Vic. S.A.
Text by Louisa Murray
Taxon concept: Jacobs, S.W.L., Whalley, R.D.B. & Wheeler, D.J.B. 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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