Description: Tufted perennials or annuals.
Ligule membranous; blade flat or folded with inrolled margins. Culms fragile at maturity; nodes glabrous.
Inflorescence an open, much-branched panicle, often completely detaching at maturity. Spikelets small, mostly 1-flowered, with the rachilla extending beyond the floret and minute to nearly as long as the spikelet; rachilla extension glabrous to long-hairy. Glumes more or less equal, as long as the spikelet, acute, firmer than the lemma, 1(–3)-nerved, keel scabrid. Lemma shorter and thinner than the glumes, usually hairy though sometimes glabrous, (3–)5-nerved, dorsally-awned (rarely sub-apical or even more rarely absent); awn scabrid, geniculate or straight; palea 50–100% lemma length.
Distribution and occurrence: A genus of c. 20 species throughout temperate areas and habitats of Australasia. Aust.: c. 10 native species, all States except N.T. From the Greek lachnos meaning wool; presumably 'hairy Agrostis' as most species of Lachnagrostis have hairy lemmas.
Often included in Agrostis.
Text by Jacobs, S.W.L., Whalley, R.D.B. & Wheeler, D.J.B.
Taxon concept: Grasses of New South Wales, Fourth Edition (2008).
Taxa not yet included in identification key
Lachnagrostis aequata
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Lemma awnless | Lachnagrostis scabra |
| Lemma awned | 2 |
| 2 | Lemma glabrous | Lachnagrostis billardierei |
| Lemma pubescent
Back to 1 | 3 |
| 3 | Small alpine grass, plants 10–30 cm tall; leaves 1–7 cm long, ligule to 5 mm long; panicle to 10 cm long | Lachnagrostis meionectes |
| Plants of lower altitudes, plants 20–70 cm tall; leaves usually >7 cm long, ligule 2–8 mm long; panicle 10–30 cm long
Back to 2 | 4 |
| 4 | Pedicels of spikelets usually diverging from the axis, spikelets c. 5 mm long, often purplish | Lachnagrostis aemula |
| Pedicels of spikelets usually close to the axis, spikelets 2–4 mm long, usually greenish
Back to 3 | Lachnagrostis filiformis |
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