Paspalidium flavidum
(Retz.) A.CamusRhizomatous or shortly stoloniferous perennial forming loose tufts. Culms ascending to erect, to c. 40 cm high. Leaves sheaths glabrous; blade flat to inrolled, to 10 cm long and 6 mm wide, glabrous; ligule 0.2–0,5 mm long. Panicle 6–15 cm long; branches (10–15 mm long) remaining appressed to the narrowly winged main axis, scabrous on the angles; pedicels scabridulous. Spikelets 2–2.3 mm long; lower glume smooth and glabrous, broadly ovate, 1.2–1.5 mm long, 3-nerved (rarely 5-nerved), the nerves not coalescing or coalescing below the apex; upper glume broad-elliptic, 5–7-nerved, 1.8–2 mm long, slightly shorter than the spikelet, firm-textured and opaque; lower lemma 5-nerved, as long as spikelet; palea of lower floret about half as long as lemma, narrow and thinly membranous; upper lemma ovate, equal or slightly shorter than lower. somewhat constricted toward base, minutely apiculate, hardened, finely transversely ridged, margins as hard as body, recurved; palea subequal to lemma, hardened, granular, slightly bulging above base. Flowers Dec.–Mar.
VVP, GipP, OtP, CVU. Recorded a few times in the 1920s from Werribee, Bacchus Marsh and Bundoora, habitat unknown. More recently (2008) collected from near Epping where occurring in a degraded Eucalyptus camaldulensis woodland remnant on a rocky rise.
Distinctive amongst most other Victorian species in the lower floret having a well-developed (but membranous) palea, the firm-textured lower lemma and the narrowly winged inflorescence rachis. Native to northern Australia through south-eastern Asia. Probably an introduction in Victoria and possibly associated with trials of native fodder grasses, but apparently not persisting.