Tribolium acutiflorum
(Nees) RenvoizeHarsh, tufted ?perennial, culms geniculate to erect, to 30 cm high but reduced forms may be only 4 cm high or less. Leaves glabrous or with scattered, tubercle-based hairs; blade flat or inrolled, to 15 cm long and 1–3 mm wide; ligule a minute ciliate rim, occasionally with a tuft of longer bristles at the sides. Inflorescence a terminal, cylindric spike-like panicle, occasionally with 1 or 2 sessile panicles borne singly from the upper nodes of the culm, 1–3(–6) cm long, ca 5 mm wide, occasionally purplish, each partly embraced by the subtending leaf. Spikelets ovate to lanceolate, 4–6 mm long, 3–8-flowered; glumes ovate, 2–4.5 mm long, acute to acuminate, scabrous along keel, otherwise glabrous; lemmas 2–4.5 mm long, acute, acuminate, mucronate or shortly awned, 7-nerved, hairy along the margin near the base and on the lower dorsal area, hairs club-shaped, slightly dilated at apex, c. 0.5 mm long. Flowers Oct.–Dec.
MuM, Wim, GleP, VVP, VRiv, GipP, OtP, WaP, Gold, CVU, GGr, DunT, HSF. Also naturalised in SA. Native to South Africa. Relatively uncommon in Victoria, most records being from creek margins, ephemeral swamps, roadsides receiving runoff etc. in central and south-western parts of the State, but occasionally recorded from drier grassy woodland sites.
Many earlier records ascribed to this species pertain the the similar, but more widespread Tribolium obliterum (Hemsl.) Renvoize.
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