Paspalidium rarum (R.Br.) Hughes APNI* Synonyms: Setaria rara (R.Br.) R.D.Webster APNI*
Description: Tufted annual to 0.4 m high; culms geniculate and much-branched.
Leaves with sheath smooth to minutely scabrid; ligule of cilia c. 0.75 mm long; blade 1–3.5 mm wide, glabrous or with tubercle-based hairs.
Panicle of reduced appressed racemes that above bear a solitary spikelet but below are often once- or few-branched towards the base; bristle flattened, scabrous. Spikelets solitary, glabrous, with a marked constriction 30% of its length from the base, 3–3.75 mm long. Lower glume c. 50% the length of the spikelet, acute, 3–5-nerved; upper a little shorter than the spikelet, 7-nerved. Lower lemma sterile, without a palea, 5–7-nerved. Upper lemma contracted into a stipe-like base, broadly acute and minutely apiculate, coarsely rugose in the lower 65% and more finely so above.
Flowering: in response to rain.
Distribution and occurrence: Grows in rocky ranges in arid areas.
NSW subdivisions: NWP, NFWP
Other Australian states: Qld W.A. N.T.
Text by S. W. L. Jacobs & C. A. Wall Taxon concept: Flora of NSW 4 (1993)
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