Rytidosperma pallidum
(R.Br.) A.M.Humphreys & H.P.Linder Silvertop Wallaby-grassCommonly forming clumps to 0.5 m diam. or more, sometimes developing rhizomes or stolons, culms erect, to 1.8 m high. Leaves glabrous; sheath smooth, commonly purplish; blade finely scabrous, usually closely inrolled but often nearly flat in alpine situations, to 40 cm long and 0.5–6 mm wide; ligule a dense line of hairs c. 0.5 mm long, with lateral tufts to 3 mm long. Inflorescence a loose, slender panicle to 35 cm long. Spikelets mostly 3–6-flowered; glumes usually purplish with pale margins, acuminate, sub-equal, 10–20 mm long; lemma 3–6 mm long, evenly covered with silky, semi-appressed hairs from base almost to the sinus; awn 8–14 mm long, twisted in lower third; lateral lobes acute, mostly 3–4 mm long; palea narrow, truncate, about as long as entire lemma (minus awn); anthers bright orange-red. Flowers Nov.–Feb
Wim, VVP, VRiv, GipP, OtP, Gold, CVU, GGr, DunT, NIS, EGL, EGU, HSF, HNF, OtR, Strz, MonT, HFE, VAlp. Also NSW, ACT. Common and often the dominant ground-layer species in drier forests and woodlands in the east, occasional in central regions. Generally regarded as uncommon in subalpine areas but there cryptic and rarely flowering unless recently burnt when it may be locally dominant and very floriferous in e.g. Snow Gum woodlands.
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.