Polypogon lutosus
(Poir.) Hitchc. Perennial BeardgrassTufted or rhizomatous perennial, culms geniculate, 10–60 cm high. Leaves glabrous, somewhat glaucous; blade flat, to 20 cm long and 10 mm wide, scabrous toward tips; ligule obtuse, membranous, 3–7 mm long. Inflorescence a dense narrowly ovate to cylindric panicle, 3–15 cm long and 8–60 mm wide. Spikelets 1-flowered; glumes 2, persistent, 1-nerved, subequal, narrowly elliptic, 2–3 mm long, scabrous-pubescent, minutely notched at apex, with a slender awn 2–3.5 mm long inserted in the notch; lemma 5-nerved, 1–2 mm long, minutely dentate at apex, glabrous, with a subterminal awn 2–3 mm long; palea 2-nerved, slightly shorter than lemma. Flowers Dec.–Mar.
Brid, VVP, MuF, GipP, OtP, WaP, EGL, MonT. Also naturalised SA, Qld, NSW, Tas. Recorded from wet, often slightly saline areas from Portland, Heywood, Warrnambool, Kerang and Melbourne areas.
Perennial Beard-grass is sometimes considered to be a sterile intergeneric hybrid between Polypogon monspeliensis and Agrostis stolonifera L. In Victoria it appears to be a fertile, true-breeding species and is treated as such here. It is an occasional component of saltmarshes and margins of brackish watercourses.
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.
