Common name: Job's Tears
Coix lacryma-jobi L. APNI* Description: Robust, erect annuals or perennials to 2 m tall; culms branched.
Ligule membranous; blade lanceolate, to 45 cm long, 2–5 cm wide, base subcordate, margins scabrous.
Inflorescences numerous, clustered in the axils of the leaves; peduncles 3–6 cm long. Female inflorescence contained in an utricle, the glumes of the sessile spikelet firm, translucent, the lower broad and enfolding the narrower upper glume; lemmas 2, translucent, one enclosing a female flower, the style and stigma of which protrude through the opening; palea 1. The two pedicellate spikelets reduced to one glume. Male inflorescences c. 15–40 mm long, with spikelets arranged on a slender raceme that protrudes through the opening of the utricle; glumes 2, membranous, the lower winged; lemma and palea translucent; stamens 3. Utricle at maturity smooth, shiny, globular or ovoid, 6–12 mm long, varying in colour from white to blue-grey to reddish or black.
Flowering: Summer.
Distribution and occurrence: Native to SE Asia and Pac. I. Mostly as a garden escape.
NSW subdivisions: *NC, *CC, *LHI
Text by Jacobs, S.W.L., Whalley, R.D.B. & Wheeler, D.J.B.
Taxon concept: Grasses of New South Wales, Fourth Edition (2008).
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data
***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
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