Digitaria diffusa
VickeryRhizomatous perennial. Culms decumbent, to 40 cm high, sometimes rooting at lower nodes. Leaf-blades flat, 1–8 cm long, 1.5–5 mm wide; ligules erose, 0.5–2 mm long. Panicle of 2–7 winged, one-sided, spike-like racemes, 3–7 cm long, arranged singly along the main axis. Spikelets acute, 1.5–1.7 mm long, paired; lower glume from one-tenth to one-quarter as long as spikelet; upper glume 3-nerved, equal to or slightly shorter than the spikelet, variably hairy on margins and internerves, hairs fine, acute, finally spreading, often purplish; lower lemma 5–7-nerved, as long as the spikelet, with hairs like the upper glume; palea of lower floret absent; lemma of upper (bisexual) floret acute, equal to or slightly shorter than spikelet, dorsally rounded, obscurely punctate-striate or smooth and shining. Flowers Jun. (1 record).
NIS. Also Qld, NSW. Known in Victoria from only a few collections (mainly on private land) bewteen Talgarno and Walwa in the far nort-east, growing in native pasture on steep slopes of sandy clay-loam. Otherwise not uncommon in coastal and tableland regions of New South Wales.
Walsh, N.G. (1994). Poaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 2, Ferns and Allied Plants, Conifers and Monocotyledons, pp. 356–627. Inkata Press, Melbourne.