Phalaris paradoxa
L. Paradoxical Canary-grassTufted annual, stems erect, to 90 cm high. Leaves glabrous; blade minutely scabrous, to 15 cm long and 9 mm wide; upper sheath usually inflated; ligule obtuse, membranous, 3–5 mm long. Panicle dense, cylindric, sometimes tapered toward the base, 3–10 cm long; fertile spikelets 5–8 mm long; glumes 3-nerved, equal, acuminate, the wing on the keel often ending in an acute point; sterile lemmas minute (c. 0.3 mm) and scale-like; fertile lemma lanceolate, 2.5–3.5 mm long, virtually glabrous; sterile spikelets distinctly smaller than fertile ones, occasionally reduced to mere swellings at the ends of the pedicels. Flowers Nov.–Feb.
LoM, MuM, Wim, VVP, VRiv, MSB, RobP, MuF, GipP, OtP, Gold, CVU, GGr, DunT, NIS, HSF, HNF. Naturalized in all States except ACT and NT. Native to the Mediterranean region and south-western Europe, naturalised in e.g. Britain, southern Africa, the Americas. Occasionally grown for fodder, and a weed in irrigated and seasonally wet areas.
Specimens with extremely reduced or deformed club-shaped sterile spikelets are often referred to var. praemorsa Coss. & Dur., but as both deformed and normal sterile spikelets may be found in the same inflorescence and in varying proportions within the same population, this varietal name would appear to be unnecessary.
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.
Spinning
