Common name: Ditch Millet
Paspalum orbiculare G.Forst. APNI* 
Description: Caespitose perennials to c. 1 m tall, with culms from a knotted root-stock, almost glabrous, or sometimes with very few hairs on the lower sheaths; nodes glabrous.
Sheaths keeled; ligule truncate, c. 0.75–2 mm long; blade 2–7.5 mm wide, as wide as or slightly narrower than the sheath at the base, glabrous except for a few long hairs near the orifice.
Inflorescence long-exserted on slender peduncles 4–12 cm long, consisting of (2-)3(-5) spreading racemes scattered along a slender angular common axis; racemes 1.5–8 cm long, shorter upwards, dense, pubescent and sometimes with a few long hairs at the axils. Spikelets mostly solitary, rarely paired towards the middle of the raceme, imbricate, glabrous, widely elliptic, obtuse to subacute but scarcely rounded at the apex, widest about the middle, 1.75–2.5 mm long and 1.25–1.6 mm wide. Lower glume absent. Upper glume and lower lemma equal and equalling the spikelet, thin. Fertile lemma subequal to the spikelet, oblong, obtuse, light brown, finely punctulate-striolate.
Flowering: Summer–autumn.
Distribution and occurrence: Coastal districts north from Jervis Bay. Grows in woodland in higher rainfall areas.
NSW subdivisions: NC, CC, SC
Other Australian states: Qld W.A. N.T.
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.
|
