Common name: Western Rat-tail Grass, Slender Rat's Tail Grass
Sporobolus creber De Nardi APNI* 
Description: Tufted perennials to 1.3 m high.
Culms ribbed, glabrous; nodes glabrous. Sheaths tightly enclosing culm, ribbed, glabrous; margin ciliate with hairs to 1 mm long; ligule a ciliate rim <0.5 mm long, each end with rigid hairs to 1 mm long; blade, 7–45 cm long, c. 3 mm wide, glabrous, lower margin sometimes with rigid tubercle-based hairs to 1 mm long.
Inflorescence spicate, 18–40 cm long, to 0.7 cm wide, axis ribbed, glabrous, visible for most of the inflorescence length; branches stiff, appressed, 0.5–5 cm long; pedicels <0.5 mm long. Spikelets c. 1.5 mm long, dark green-grey, floret 1. Lower glume elliptic, c. 0.5 mm long, acute or obtuse, hyaline; upper glume lanceolate, c. 1 mm long, acute, 1-nerved, hyaline. Lemma lanceolate, c. 1.5 mm long, acute, 1-nerved; palea lanceolate, c. 1.5 mm long, acute, 1-nerved, rounded on the back.
Flowering: Flowers in summer.
Distribution and occurrence: Grows in woodland.
NSW subdivisions: NC, CC, SC, NT, CT, ST, NWS, CWS, SWS, NWP, SWP
Other Australian states: Qld Vic.
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.
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