Hyparrhenia rufa (Nees) Stapf APNI*
Description: Erect annual or perennial to c. 2 m high.
Leaves with sheath usually glabrous; ligule 3–4.5 mm long; blade 2–4 mm wide, glabrous.
Panicle 35–60 cm long. Spatheoles usually 5–6 mm long, at length reddish and rolled around the peduncles. Racemes paired, 2–5 cm long; bases hairy, unequal; 9–10 awns per raceme; the callus beards, internodes and pedicels usually white; a pair of sterile spikelets (similar to the pedicellate spikelets) at the base of the lower or both racemes. Sessile spikelets hairy, 4–5 mm long (excluding the callus); callus 0.2–0.8 mm long. Lower glume usually pilose with stiff rufous to pale yellow hairs; upper 3-nerved, sparsely hairy. Lower lemma about as long as the glumes; upper 2–2.5 cm long (including the awn), the column rusty-pubescent. Pedicellate spikelets hairy, 4.5–6 mm long.
Flowering: summer.
Distribution and occurrence: Grows as a roadside weed. Native of Afr.
NSW subdivisions: *NC, *CC, *SC, *NWS
Other Australian states: *Qld
Text by S. W. L. Jacobs & C. A. Wall Taxon concept:
N.S.W. occurrences are: subsp. altissima |
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