Description: Loosely tufted annuals or perennials; culms erect, slender.
Leaves with ligule a membranous rim, sometimes with hairs; blade narrow, pointed, flat, often hairy.
Inflorescence spicate or open and paniculate, erect or nodding, branches slender, sometimes spreading at anthesis, becoming appressed at maturity.
Spikelets breaking up at maturity above the glumes and between the lemmas, pedicellate, florets 2–4; rachilla hairy, produced beyond the upper floret. Glumes unequal, acute, keeled, rough on the keels; lower narrow, lanceolate, 1-nerved; upper 3-nerved. Lemmas smooth, 2-toothed, 3–5-nerved; awn dorsal, curved; callus hairy. Palea subequal to lemma 2-toothed, 2-keeled, not enclosed by the lemma at maturity, silvery.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 24 species, America, Asia, Europe, Australia, New Zealand. Australia: 2 species (1 species native, 1 species naturalized), Qld, N.S.W., Vic., Tas.
Text by Jacobs, S.W.L., Whalley, R.D.B. & Wheeler, D.J.B.
Taxon concept: Grasses of New South Wales, Fourth Edition (2008).
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Panicle axis and pedicels of spikelets glabrous; glumes glabrous or slightly scabrous; lemma awn 4.5–9 mm long, usually bent and twisted; leaves glabrous or hairy | Trisetum flavescens |
| Panicle axis and pedicels of spikelets usually densely hairy; keels of glumes ciliate or scabrous; lemma awn 3–6 mm long, strongly curved rather than bent; leaves usually densely pubescent | Trisetum spicatum |
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