Common name: Durban Grass
Dactyloctenium australe Steud. APNI* 
Description: Stoloniferous perennial to 0.8 m high, stolons wiry, flattened; culms erect or geniculate.
Leaves with ligule c. 5 mm long; blade 2–5 mm wide, glabrous or scattered with rigid tubercle-based hairs to 1 mm long, shining, margins scabrous with rigid tubercle-based hairs to 1.5 mm long.
Spikes 2–5, each 2–4 cm long, ending in a sterile rachis tip. Spikelets elliptic-oblong, 4–5 mm long, 4–6-flowered. Glumes 1.5–2 mm long, lower ovate, truncate, upper oblong-elliptic, obtuse, with keel extended into an awn 2.5–3 mm long. Lemmas ovate, tips flexuous, acuminate to aristulate, 2.5–3.5 mm long, awn 0.5–1 mm long.
Flowering: summer.
Distribution and occurrence: Cultivated as a shade-tolerant lawn species, often naturalized in urban and coastal areas; north from Sydney. Native of S Afr.
NSW subdivisions: *NC, *CC
Other Australian states: *Qld *N.T.
Text by S. W. L. Jacobs & S. M. Hastings
Taxon concept: Flora of NSW 4 (1993)
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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