Rytidosperma monticola (Wallaby-grass)
Workbook
Habit and inflorescence
Erect, densely caespitose perennial to 0.5m high. Found in drainage gutter alongside shed. Flowers mid-late November. Reappeared after 2020 Border Fire, flowering in April (seeding in early May).
Culms 60cm high, 3-noded, smooth except slightly scabrous just below panicle. Sheaths hirsute. Some enfolding the culms, others loose. Blade inrolled, setaceous, hirsute, rigid.
Floral Structure
from NSW PlantNet:
Spikelets 4–6-flowered (5), often purplish (yes) or at length straw-coloured (yes) , the florets much shorter than the glumes (yes). Glumes mostly 9-nerved (7-nerved), the margins purplish (yes), 8–11 mm long (11mm). Lemmas 2–2.5 mm long (~2.5mm), more or less ovate-lanceolate, hairy (yes); lateral lobes rather triangular, narrowing rather abruptly into the fine awns (yes); central awn brown and twisted in the lower part (yes); palea ovate-spathulate or obovate-oblong (ovate-spathulate), very minutely ciliolate on the keels (yes).
from PlantNet key: lateral lobes 2-3 times as long as body of lemma, setae of lateral lobes 2-4mm long, lateral lobes 6-10mm long, body of lemma 1.25-3mm long, body of lemma pale at maturity, outer margins of lateral lobes without auricles, lemma with a row of hair-tufts above callus, lemma with a complete row of hair-tufts above callus, lemma with hairs only in distinct transverse rows of tufts on back.
from PlantNet key for Rytidosperma monticola
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