Taxonomic status:Accepted
Occurrence status:Present
Establishment means:Native
Remarks: Some authorities (e.g. Morrone et al., Cladistics 28:333-56 (2012)) treat Paspalidium as a synonym of Setaria. At this stage the genera are retained as distinct in Australia.
Tufted, rhizomatous or stoloniferous annuals or perennials. Leaf-blades usually flat; ligule a fringed membrane. Inflorescence a one-sided or distichously branched panicle; branches terminated by a bristle. Spikelets shortly pedicellate or subsessile, 2-flowered, but the lower male or barren; glumes 2, falling with the spikelet, the lower shorter than the upper; lower lemma equal to upper glume, with or without palea, not becoming indurated; upper lemma bisexual, both it and its palea becoming indurated.
About 27 species, near-cosmopolitan in warmer countries; 23 in Australia, 4 in Victoria.
Paspalidium distans (Trin.) Hughes had been reported for Victoria on the basis of a single 2008 collection from near Epping (northern Melbourne suburb), but this specimen has subsequently been determined as P. flavidum (Retz.) A.Camus.