Common name: South African Pigeon Grass, Setaria
Setaria sphacelata (Schumach.) Stapf & C.E.Hubb. APNI* 
Description: Densely to compactly tufted perennial to 2 m high.
Culms more or less erect, simple or branching, sometimes scabrid and hairy below inflorescence, 3–5-noded. Sheaths more or less laterally compressed to terete, smooth, glabrous; ligule densely ciliate, c. 1.5 mm long; blade linear, tapering, 15–30 cm long, 3–6 mm wide, mostly glabrous, margins scabrid at least upwards.
Inflorescence erect, spike-like, dense, continuous, cylindrical, 7–30 cm long, branches subsessile, bristles fine, rigid. Spikelets elliptic-oblong, 1.25–3 mm long, in groups of 1–4, each group subtended by 6–10 bristles 4–6 mm long. Lower glume c. 30% spikelet length, 3-nerved, subacute to obtuse; upper c. 50% spikelet length, 5-nerved. Lower lemma usually staminate, as long as spikelet, apiculate, 5-nerved; palea as long as lemma, elliptical-oblong, acute. Upper lemma bisexual, as long as spikelet, finely transversely rugose, hardened; palea similar.
Flowering: Flowers in summer.
Distribution and occurrence: Cultivated as a pasture grass and naturalized. Native of trop. & S Africa.
NSW subdivisions: *NC, *CC, *SC, *CWS, *SWP
Other Australian states: *Qld *Vic. *W.A. *S.A. *N.T.
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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