Austrostipa stuposa
(Hughes) S.W.L.Jacobs & J.EverettTufted perennial, culms erect, to 1.5 (–2.4) m high, nodes pubescent. Leaves smooth and glabrous, scabrous or pubescent, blade closely inrolled to flat, to 40 cm long and 3 mm wide; ligule ciliate, 0.5–4 mm long. Inflorescence a contracted or sometimes expanded panicle to 30 cm. Glumes 13–23 mm long, purplish or straw-coloured, acuminate but the tip readily eroding, membranous, the lower 1–4 mm longer than upper; lemma 6–12 mm long, dark reddish brown at maturity, granular, sometimes scabrous near the apex, covered with spreading white to golden hairs, coma slightly spreading, 1–3 mm long, the hairs usually longer than those of the body of the lemma; callus 1.5–2.5 mm long; awn twice bent, 45–70 mm long, 6–13 mm to the first bend; palea about equal to lemma, with a line of hairs down the centre. Flowers Oct.–Dec
LoM, MuM, Wim, GleP, VVP, VRiv, GipP, Gold, CVU, GGr, DunT, NIS, EGL, EGU, HSF, HNF, Strz. Also SA, NSW, Tas. Scattered in Victoria (e.g. Horsham district, near Melbourne, Bairnsdale area, and north of Mallacoota), occurring over a wide range of soil types and habitats.
Austrostipa stuposa is a variable species and seems to combine features of species with a coma such as A. blackii and those with hairy or plumose awns such as A. mollis.
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
