Cleistochloa subjuncea C. E. Hubbard. Hooker's Icon. Pl. 33: t. 3209, 2 (1933).
Classification. (GPWG 2001) : Subfamily Panicoideae. Paniceae.
Basionym and/or Replacement Name: Panicum subjunceum Domin, Bibliotheca Botanica 85: 314, f. 70 (1915).
Type of Basionym or Protologue Information: Australia: Queensland: Sandhügel der Dividing Range östlich von Pentland, Feb 1910, Domin s.n..
Key references (books and floras): [2005] K.Mallet (ed.), Flora of Australia 44B: Poaceae 3, [2008] S.W.L.Jacobs, R.D.B.Walley & D.J.B.Wheeler, Grasses of New South Wales (188).
Illustrations: [1983] J.C.Tothill & J.B.Hacker, Grasses of Southern Queensland (164), [2008] S.W.L.Jacobs, R.D.B.Whalley & D.J.B.Wheeler, Grasses of New South Wales, 4th edn (188).
Habit. Perennial. Rhizomes present (probably, but not collected). Culms geniculately ascending, 30–60 cm tall, wiry. Mid-culm internodes glabrous or pilose. Lateral branches sparsely branched or suffrutescent. Leaves cauline. Leaf-sheaths glabrous on surface or hairy. Ligule a fringe of hairs, 0.4–1 mm long. Leaf-blades flat or convolute, 1–6 cm long, 0.5–3 mm wide. Leaf-blade surface smooth, glabrous or indumented.
Inflorescence. Inflorescence solid, a raceme. Racemes 1, 0.7–3.5 cm long, bearing 2–6 fertile spikelets on each.
Spikelets. Spikelets pedicelled. Fertile spikelets 2-flowered, the lower floret barren (rarely male), the upper fertile, comprising 1 basal sterile florets, comprising 1 fertile floret(s), without rachilla extension, elliptic, dorsally compressed, 3.5–4.5 mm long.
Glumes. Glumes thinner than fertile lemma. Upper glume oblong, 3.1–4.2 mm long, chartaceous, without keels, 5–7 -nerved. Upper glume surface glabrous. Florets. Basal sterile florets 1, barren, without significant palea. Lemma of lower sterile floret 90 % of length of spikelet, membranous, 7 -nerved.
Fertile lemma 3.5–4.5 mm long, without keel, 5–7 -nerved. Lemma surface glabrous. Lemma apex muticous or mucronate. Palea 2 -nerved, without keels. Lodicules present. Anthers 3. Grain 2.8 mm long.
Continental Distribution: Australasia.
Australian Distribution: Queensland, New South Wales.
Queensland: Burke, Burnett, Cook, Darling Downs, Leichhardt, Maranoa, Mitchell, Moreton, North Kennedy, Port Curtis, South Kennedy, Warrego, Wide Bay. New South Wales: North-Western Slopes.
Notes. Variable in leaf pubescence and spikelet form. Further collections of specimens with chasmogamous spikelets would be helpful. Diagnostic features include the solitary pedicellate cleistogamous spikelets that occur in the leaf axils and the glabrous or nearly glabrous chasmogamous spikelets.
In tropical and subtropical rain forests, Brigalow forests, tropical and subtropical sub-humid woodlands, and semi-arid shrub woodlands. Flowers sporadically throughout the year.
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