Aristida blakei


Aristida blakei B.K.Simon. Austrobaileya
2: 88 (1984).

Classification. (GPWG 2001) : Subfamily
Aristidoideae. Aristideae.

Type of Basionym or
Protologue Information
: Queensland: Warrego Dist.: Morven, 2 Apr 1936, S.T.
Blake 11000
(HT: BRI-254115; IT: AD, CANB, K, L, MEL, MO, NSW, NT, PERTH,
PRE).

Key references
(books and floras):
[2002] D.Sharp & B.K.Simon, AusGrass, Grasses of
Australia
, [2008] S.W.L.Jacobs, R.D.B.Walley & D.J.B.Wheeler, Grasses
of New South Wales
(127).

Illustrations:
[2008] S.W.L.Jacobs, R.D.B.Whalley & D.J.B.Wheeler, Grasses of New South
Wales
, 4th edn (127).

Derivation: in
honor of Stanley Thatcher Blake (1911–1973), Queensland botanist.

Habit.
Perennial. Culms 50–90 cm tall, 3–5 -noded. Mid-culm internodes glabrous.
Lateral branches sparsely branched or branched. Ligule a fringe of hairs, 0.5
mm long. Leaf-blades straight, conduplicate or involute or convolute, 11–20 cm
long, 1–1.5 mm wide. Leaf-blade surface scaberulous.

Inflorescence.
Inflorescence compound, a panicle. Panicle elliptic, effuse, 10–34 cm long,
4.5–7.5 cm wide.

Spikelets.
Spikelets pedicelled. Fertile spikelets 1-flowered, comprising 1 fertile
floret(s), without rachilla extension, lanceolate, terete, 9–15 mm long.

Glumes. Glumes
similar, thinner than fertile lemma. Lower glume lanceolate, membranous,
keeled, 1-keeled, 1 -nerved. Lower glume apex awned. Upper glume lanceolate,
9–15 mm long, membranous, keeled, 1-keeled, 1 -nerved. Upper glume apex entire,
awned.

Florets.
Fertile lemma 8–12 mm long, without keel, 3 -nerved. Lemma apex awned, 3
-awned. Median (principal) awn without a column. Lateral lemma awns present.
Palea without keels. Anthers 3. Grain 9.5 mm long.

Continental
Distribution
: Australasia.

Australian
Distribution
: Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales.

Northern Territory:
Central Australia South. Queensland: Burke, Darling Downs, Gregory
North, Leichhardt, Mitchell, North Kennedy, Warrego, Moreton. New South
Wales
: Central-Western Slopes, North-Western Plains, North Far Western
Plains, South Far Western Plains.

Notes.
A. blakei resembles A. nitidula, A. platychaeta and A.
arida
in its tuberculate or muricate lemmas but differs in its open
panicle.

Scattered
distribution in arid parts of the Northern Territory, Queensland and New South
Wales. Eucalyptus and mulga (Acacia aneura) communities on sands
and loams. Flowering and fruiting January, March to August, November.

AVH 2011

  

Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith