Cenchrus macrourus
(Trin.) Morrone African Feather-grassRobust, rhizomatous perennial. Culms erect, to 180 cm high. Leaf-blades flat or inrolled, to 50 cm long and 12 mm wide, glabrous, or with a few hairs near base, scabrous on margins and near apex; sheaths usually sparsely hairy; ligules c. 1.5 mm long. Inflorescence a dense cylindric panicle 8–30 cm long; spikelets 1–4 per branch, each subtended by an involucre 10–15 mm long, of scabrous bristles, the uppermost of which is longer and thicker than the rest. Spikelets lanceolate, 3–6 mm long; lower glume vestigial (to 1 mm long) or lacking; upper glume ovate, c. 1 mm long, hyaline; lower floret sterile, its lemma as long as the spikelet, membranous, obscurely 3–5-nerved, palea absent; lemma of upper (fertile) floret equal to sterile lemma but firmer and distinctly nerved; palea subequal to lemma. Flowers Oct.–Apr.
GleP, VVP, MuF, GipP, Gold, GGr, DunT, HSF, Strz. Also naturalised in WA, SA, NSW, ACT, Tas. Native to Africa and Yemen. In Victoria, largely confined to the far south-west (except for a few isolated records east of Melbourne e.g. Emerald, Cranbourne, Morewell), from Casterton where first noted in 1943, west to near the SA border at Lake Mundi.
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.
