Common name: Pypgrass
Ehrharta villosa (L.f.) Schult.f. ex Schult. & Schult.f. APNI*
Description: Perennial to 0.9 m high, with a contracted to long creeping rhizome.
Leaves with sheath rather firm, at length opening and exposing the internodes, glabrous, smooth, the lowest often without blades; ligule ciliolate; blade 4–6 mm wide, upper surface and margins scabrid.
Panicle erect, 8–25 cm long, somewhat loose, branches filiform, lower ones flexuous. Spikelets spreading or nodding, oblong, 10–15 mm long. Glumes subequal, 8–11 mm long, 5–7-nerved, acute. Sterile florets similar, subequal, densely long-villous, with a mucro to 2 mm long, the lower 5-nerved, bearded at the base. Bisexual lemma slightly shorter than the sterile floret, obscurely 7-nerved, ciliolate on the keel and upwards and often with a few hairs on the sides.
Flowering: spring–summer.
Distribution and occurrence: Usually grown on sand dunes as a sand-binder, occasionally becoming naturalized. Native of S Afr.
NSW subdivisions: *CC
Other Australian states: *Vic. *W.A. *S.A.
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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