Schismus barbatus
(L.) Thell Arabian GrassTufted, often reddish or purplish annual with erect or geniculate and spreading culms to 35 cm high. Leaves glabrous to lightly hairy; blade incurved to finely inrolled, to 10 cm long and c. 1.5 mm wide when flattened; ligule membranous, to 1 mm long, ciliate on margins and with a prominent tuft of hairs to 4 mm long at the sides. Inflorescence a slender panicle 2–7 cm long. Spikelets 6–11-flowered, flattened-cylindric, 7–11 mm long; glumes subequal, acuminate, 5–8 mm long; lemmas ovate, 1.8–2.5 mm long, membranous, ciliate along margins and usually in lower half of dorsal surface, apical notch to c. 0.5 mm deep, the mucro not or barely exceeding apex or sometimes absent; palea cuneate, rounded at apex, approaching the base of the notch in the lemma. Flowers mostly Sep.–Dec.
LoM, MuM, Wim, VVP, VRiv, MSB, RobP, MuF, GipP, Gold, CVU, EGU. Also WA, SA, NSW. Occurs on light sandy soils in areas of low rainfall mostly in the west where valued as spring and summer sheep fodder, with a disjunct occurrence in the rain-shadow area near the upper Snowy River in East Gippsland.
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
