Common name: Para Grass
Urochloa mutica (Forssk.) T.Q.Nguyen APNI* Synonyms: Brachiaria mutica (Forssk.) Stapf APNI*
Description: Stoloniferous perennial with culms to 4 m long.
Leaves with sheath with tubercle-based hairs, denser towards the nodes; ligule a densely ciliolate rim; blade 6–20 mm wide, glabrous or sometimes slightly hirsute.
Inflorescence of numerous racemes, 2- or irregularly several-seriate, 2–8 cm long, the lower often branched and then somewhat interrupted; pedicels solitary or paired, to 2.5 mm long, with discoid tips. Spikelets 3–3.5 mm long, glabrous. Lower glume 30–50% as long as the spikelet, faintly 3–5-nerved; upper glume 5–7-nerved. Lower lemma similar to the upper glume, 5-nerved, subtending a palea almost as long and a male floret. Fertile lemma slightly shorter than the spikelet, c. 2.5 mm long, subacute or very minutely apiculate, very finely rugulose to almost smooth.
Flowering: summer.
Distribution and occurrence: Grows in wet areas on good soil, a weed of sugar cane crops. Native of Afr. or Amer.
NSW subdivisions: *NC
Other Australian states: *Qld *W.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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