Common name
Dark Wiregrass
Branched Wiregrass

Derivation
Aristida L., Sp. Pl. 1: 82 (1753); from the Latin arista (an awn).

calycina- from the Greek kalyx (cup) and -ina (belonging to). The subtending glumes are as long as or longer than the lemma thereby resembling a cup.

Common synonyms
Aristida glumaris Henrard
Aristida praealta (Domin) Henrard
Aristida armata Henrard

Habit
Perennial, tufted. Culms erect, 33–128 cm tall. Mid-culm internodes mid-green or glaucous, smooth or scaberulous or papillose, glabrous. Lateral branches sparsely branched or branched. Leaf-sheaths smooth to antrorsely scabrous, glabrous on surface. Ligule a fringe of hairs, 0.3–1 mm long. Collar glabrous or pubescent. Leaf-blades straight, filiform or linear, flat or conduplicate or involute or convolute, 20–25 cm long, 1–4 mm wide. Leaf-blade surface smooth or scabrous.

Inflorescence
Inflorescence compound, a panicle or a panicle. Panicle open or contracted, linear to elliptic, 12–31.5 cm long, 2–20 cm wide. Primary panicle branches 2.5–18 cm long. Panicle branches with prominent pulvini.

Spikelets
Spikelets solitary. Fertile spikelets 1-flowered, comprising 1 fertile floret, without rhachilla extension, lanceolate, terete, 5.5–20 mm long, breaking up at maturity. Spikelets disarticulating below each fertile floret. Floret callus elongated, pubescent, acute.

Glumes
Glumes lower deciduous, upper persistent or deciduous, similar, thinner than fertile lemma. Lower glume lanceolate, 5.5–14.8 mm long, 75–110% length of upper glume, membranous, 1-keeled, 1–7-nerved. Lower glume lateral nerves absent or distinct. Lower glume surface smooth to scabrous, glabrous or pilose. Lower glume apex acute or acuminate, muticous or mucronate. Upper glume lanceolate, 5.5–20 mm long, 140% of length of adjacent fertile lemma, membranous, 1-keeled, 1-nerved. Upper glume lateral nerves absent. Upper glume surface smooth to scabrous, glabrous or pilose. Upper glume apex entire or erose, emarginate to acuminate, muticous or mucronate.

Florets
Fertile lemma lanceolate, subterete, 4–14 mm long, coriaceous, pallid or light brown, mottled with last colour, 3-nerved. Lemma surface smooth. Lemma margins involute, covering most of palea, without distinctive roughness or scabrous. Lemma apex acute, 3-awned. Median (principal) awn flat below, 10–31 mm long, without a column, persistent. Lateral lemma awns present, 8–27 mm long, shorter than principal, 80–85% of length of principal. Palea 20% of length of lemma, without keels. Anthers 3. Grain with adherent pericarp, grooved, 3–5 mm long. Embryo 25–50% of length of grain. Hilum linear, 30–50% of length of caryopsis.

Continental Distribution:
Australasia.

Australian Distribution:
Western Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria.

Western Austraia: Fortescue, Giles. Northern Territory: Darwin & Gulf, Barkly Tableland, Central Australia North, Central Australia South. Queensland: Cook, Burke, North Kennedy, South Kennedy, Port Curtis, Leichhardt, Burnett, Wide Bay, Darling Downs, Moreton, Gregory South, Mitchell, Warrego, Maranoa. New South Wales: North Coast, Central Coast, South Coast, Northern Tablelands, Central Tablelands, Southern Tablelands, North-Western Slopes, Central-Western Slopes, South-Western Slopes, North-Western Plains, North Far Western Plains. Victoria: Midlands, Eastern Highlands.

Classification. (GPWG 2001):
Aristidoideae

Notes
Native. Aristida calycina differs from Aristida benthamii and Aristida jerichoensis by its larger spikelets and from Aristida acuta by the glumes not being awned and by the inflorescence branches usually bearing spikelets throughout its length. It also usually has prominent pulvini in the axes of the inflorescence branches. The glumes may be inverse. Three varieties are recognised - var. praealta with tuberculate lemma furrows and var. calycina and var. filifolia without tuberculate lemma furrows; the latter variety has filiform leaf blades.

Aristida calycina var. calycina
Covering large parts of Queensland and New South Wales. Also recorded from the Northern Territory and Victoria, with an anomalous record from the Eremaean region of Western Australia near the Northern Territory border. Acacia, brigalow (Acacia harpophylla), Callitris, Eucalyptus, Melaleuca and Triodia communities on red earths, sands and alluvial soils. Flowering and fruiting all year.

Aristida calycina var. praealta Domin
Occurs in three main areas in Queensland and New South Wales and three outlying records in Queensland. Acacia, brigalow (Acacia harpophylla), Callitris, Eucalyptus, mulga (Acacia aneura) and Triodia communities on red earths, sands and alluvial soils. Flowering and fruiting all year.

Aristida calycina var. filifolia B.K. Simon
Rocky terrain. Flowering and fruiting July. Newcastle Ra, N Qld.