Description: Erect annuals or short-lived perennials.
Leaves with sheath loose; ligule membranous; blade narrow to bristle-like, erect.
Inflorescence paniculate, erect, narrow, branches later spreading. Spikelets almost cylindrical, narrow, solitary, pedicellate; florets 5–12, bisexual, disarticulating above the glumes and between the lemmas. Glumes unequal, lower glume 1-nerved; upper glume shorter than lemmas, acute or obtuse, 3-nerved, rounded on the back. Lemma obtuse, firm, 5-nerved, upper lemmas sterile. Palea subequal to lemma, shortly 2-toothed, 2-keeled.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 25 spp., temperate regions mainly in the northern hemisphere, New Zealand, Aust.: 5 spp. (4 spp. naturalized, 1 sp. native), all States except N.T.
Derivation: named after an Italian Professor of Botany.
Text by 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
Puccinellia ciliata,
Puccinellia perlaxa,
Puccinellia stricta
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