Dichanthium queenslandicum

Dichanthium
queenslandicum
B.K. Simon. Austrobaileya
1: 457 (1982).

Classification. (GPWG 2001) : Subfamily
Panicoideae. Andropogoneae.

Type of Basionym or
Protologue Information
: Australia:
Queensland:
10 km E of Capella, Simon & Bisset 2882 (HT: BRI-228113; IT: CANB,
K, MO).

Key references
(books and floras):
[2002] D.Sharp & B.K.Simon, AusGrass, Grasses of
Australia
.

Habit.
Perennial. Culms erect, 40–80 cm tall, 4–5 -noded. Mid-culm nodes bearded.
Leaf-sheaths hairy. Ligule a fringed membrane, a ciliolate membrane, 1–1.5 mm
long. Leaf-blades 9–18 cm long, 3–5 mm wide. Leaf-blade surface indumented.

Inflorescence.
Inflorescence solid or subdigitate, a rame, with ramose branches. Rhachis
fragile at the nodes.

Spikelets.
Spikelets sessile, 1 in the cluster. Companion spikelets pedicelled, 1 in the
cluster. Companion spikelets developed, male, 6 mm long. 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, linear or lanceolate or oblong, dorsally compressed,
7.5–8.5 mm long.

Glumes. Glumes
dissimilar, firmer than fertile lemma. Lower glume oblong, coriaceous, without
keels, winged on margins, 11 -nerved. Upper glume lanceolate, coriaceous,
keeled, 1-keeled, 3 -nerved. Florets. Basal sterile florets 1, barren,
without significant palea. Lemma of lower sterile floret hyaline.

Fertile lemma 3 mm
long, without keel, 1 -nerved. Lemma apex entire, awned, 1 -awned. Median
(principal) awn apical, 20 mm long overall, with a twisted column. Palea
absent. Anthers 2. Grain 4 mm long.

Continental
Distribution
: Australasia.

Australian
Distribution
: Queensland.

Queensland:
Leichhardt, Port Curtis, Darling Downs.

Notes.
A valuable fodder species.

Endemic
to Queensland
where it occurs on black clay soils around Emerald and more rarely on the
Darling Downs. Flowers Nov.-Jan.

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