Eragrostis dielsii

Eragrostis dielsii Pilg. ex
Diels & Pritz. Bot.
Jahrb. Syst.
35:
76 (1904).

Classification. (GPWG 2001) : Subfamily
Chloridoideae. Cynodonteae.

Type of Basionym or
Protologue Information
: Hab. in distr. Austin litorali pr. Carnarvon in solo arenoso-argilloso
flor. m. Aug, Diels 3635.

Key references
(books and floras):
[1952] C.A.Gardner, Flora of Western Australia 1
Gramineae (126), [1981] M.Lazarides in J.Jessop (ed)., Flora of
Central Australia
(458), [2002] D.Sharp & B.K.Simon, AusGrass,
Grasses of Australia
, [2006] J.Jessop, G.R.M.Dashorst, F.M.James, Grasses
of South Australia
(368), [2008] S.W.L.Jacobs, R.D.B.Walley &
D.J.B.Wheeler, Grasses of New South Wales (250).

Illustrations:
[1952] C.A.Gardner, Flora of Western Australia 1 Gramineae (127,
Pl. 37), [2006] J.Jessop, G.R.M.Dashorst, F.M.James, Grasses of South
Australia
 (369, Fig. 297 as var. dielsii),
[2008] S.W.L.Jacobs, R.D.B.Whalley & D.J.B.Wheeler, Grasses of New South
Wales
, 4th edn (250).

Habit. Annual
or perennial. Culms erect or geniculately ascending or decumbent or prostrate,
3–55 cm tall. Ligule a fringe of hairs, 0.5–0.8 mm long. Leaf-blades straight,
flat or conduplicate or involute, 4–8 cm long, 1–3.5 mm wide. Leaf-blade
surface scabrous.

Inflorescence.
Inflorescence compound, a panicle. Panicle linear or lanceolate or elliptic,
2–17 cm long, 1–1.5 cm wide, gathered into fascicles.

Spikelets.
Spikelets sessile. Fertile spikelets many flowered, with at least 2 fertile
florets ((9-)21–81), comprising (9–)21–81 fertile floret(s), with diminished
florets at the apex, linear, terete, 4.5–50 mm long.

Glumes. Glumes
similar. Lower glume oblong, membranous, keeled, 1-keeled, 1 -nerved. Upper
glume oblong, 1.5 mm long, membranous, keeled, 1-keeled, 1 -nerved.

Florets.
Fertile lemma 1.5–2.5 mm long, keeled, 3 -nerved. Lemma apex muticous.
Lodicules present. Anthers 3.

Continental
Distribution
: Australasia.

Australian
Distribution
: Western Australia, Northern Territory, South Australia,
Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria.

Western Australia: Dampier. Mueller,
Canning, Keartland, Helms, Fortescue, Ashburton, Carnarvon, Austin. Eucla,
Irwin, Eyre, Roe, Avon, Coolgardie. Northern Territory: Central Australia North, Central Australia South. South Australia:
North-western, Lake Eyre, Nullabor, Gairdner-Torrens Basin, Flinders Ranges,
Eastern, Eyre Peninsula, Northern Lofty, Murray, Yorke Peninsula, Southern
Lofty. Queensland:
Gregory North, Maranoa, Mitchell, South Kennedy, Warrego, Gregory South. New
South Wales
: North-Western Plains, South-Western Plains, North Far Western
Plains, South Far Western Plains. Victoria:
Grampians, Lowan Mallee, Murray
Mallee, Riverina, Wimmera.

Notes.
A moderate fodder species; also a useful saline tolerant species.

 Distinguishing characters include spikelets
sessile or subsessile, clustered; panicle often reduced to raceme or spike and
spiciform; spikelets biconvex or terete, linear; rachilla persistent or
subpersistent, compressed; lemmas and paleas often granular-scabrous; keels and
flaps of palea thickened; caryopsis flattened; florets closely imbricate.
Related to E. pergracilis and E. lanicaulis.

Endemic;
widespread across mainland central and southern Australia as far E as about
Cunnumulla in Qld. Widespread and common on seasonally flooded, heavy grey and
black clays, alluvial and saline soils (lake, flats, claypans, floodplains,
sandhill and dune swales, swamps, drainage channnels, river beds and banks);
also in red and brown sands and loams, limestone soils, along creeks in
quartzite hills, and in disturbed roadside and bore areas.; flowers all year
round.; fruits all year round.

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