Eragrostis australasica

Eragrostis australasica (Steud.) C. E.
Hubbard. Bull. Misc. Inform. 26 (1941).

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

Basionym and/or
Replacement Name:
 Glyceria
australasica
Steud., Syn. Pl. Glumac. 1: 286 (1854).

Type of Basionym or
Protologue Information
: HT: Drummond 387, N.
Holland (P; IT: US (fragm. ex P)).

Key references
(books and floras):
[1878] G.Bentham, Flora Australiensis 7 (659 as Glyceria
australasica
), [1952] C.A.Gardner, Flora of Western Australia 1 Gramineae
(116), [1981] M.Lazarides in J.Jessop (ed)., Flora of Central Australia
(460), [2002] D.Sharp & B.K.Simon, AusGrass, Grasses of Australia,
[2006] J.Jessop, G.R.M.Dashorst, F.M.James, Grasses of South Australia
(363), [2008] S.W.L.Jacobs, R.D.B.Walley & D.J.B.Wheeler, Grasses of New
South Wales
(249).

Illustrations:
[1952] C.A.Gardner, Flora of Western
Australia
1 Gramineae (117, Pl. 33),
[2006] J.Jessop, G.R.M.Dashorst, F.M.James, Grasses of South Australia  (363, fig. 290), [2008] S.W.L.Jacobs,
R.D.B.Whalley & D.J.B.Wheeler, Grasses of New South Wales, 4th edn
(249).

Habit.
Perennial. Rhizomes present. Culms erect or geniculately ascending, 100–300 cm
tall, woody. Mid-culm internodes solid. Lateral branches branched. Ligule a
fringe of hairs, 0.5–0.8 mm long. Leaf-blades straight, flat, 3–20 cm long, 2–6
mm wide.

Inflorescence.
Inflorescence compound, a panicle. Panicle ovate, 5–26 cm long.

Spikelets.
Spikelets pedicelled. Fertile spikelets many flowered, with at least 2 fertile
florets (4–15), comprising 4–15 fertile floret(s), with diminished florets at
the apex, linear or oblong, laterally compressed, 5–13 mm long.

Glumes. Glumes
similar. Lower glume lanceolate, hyaline, without keels or keeled, 1-keeled, 0
-nerved. Upper glume oblong, 2–4 mm long, hyaline, without keels or keeled,
1-keeled, 0 -nerved.

Florets.
Fertile lemma 2–3.5 mm long, keeled, 1–3 -nerved. Lemma apex muticous.
Lodicules present. Anthers 3. Grain 1 mm long.

Continental
Distribution
: Australasia.

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

Western Australia: Carnegie, Helms,
Ashburton, Carnarvon, Austin. Irwin, Avon,
Coolgardie. Northern Territory: Central Australia South. South Australia:
North-western, Lake Eyre, Gairdner-Torrens Basin, Flinders Ranges, Eastern,
Eyre Peninsula, Northern Lofty, Murray. Queensland:
Gregory North, Maranoa, Warrego, Gregory South. New South Wales:
Southern Tablelands, North-Western Slopes, South-Western Slopes, North-Western
Plains, South-Western Plains, North Far Western Plains, South Far Western
Plains. Victoria: Murray Mallee.

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

 Distinguishing characters include shrubby
habit; cane-like strongly branched culms with many knotty nodes; glabrous,
smooth, glaucous culms and foliage; linear spikelet, with vestigial terminal
floret, deciduous unequal distant florets and straight rachilla; unequal
dorsally rounded persistent glumes; persistent lemmas with the lateral nerves
one-half as long; body of palea splitting along the median, keel smooth, and
flaps as wide as body; strongly compressed, stipitate caryopsis.

Endemic;
distribution scattered through central and southern W.A., then more commonly S
of Alice Springs in N.T., eastern S.A. around L. Eyre, SW Qld. and E to L.
George in N.S.W. and S to Melbourne in Vic. On clayey, sometimes saline, beds
and banks of seasonally flooded swamps, lakes claypans, floodouts and watercourses,
often partly submerged.; flowers in all seasons; fruits in all seasons.

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