Common name
Pitted Bluegrass
Red Grass
Redleg Grass

Derivation
Bothriochloa Kuntze, Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 762 (1891); from the Greek bothros (pit) and chloa (grass), alluding to the pitted glumes.

decipiens- from the Latin word for deceiving, resembling another species.

Published in
Bull. Misc. Inform. 444 (1934).

Habit
Perennial, tufted. Culms erect or geniculately ascending, 30–200 cm tall, 5–9-noded. Mid-culm internodes smooth or papillose. Mid-culm nodes purple, glabrous. Lateral branches simple or sparsely branched or branched. Leaves mostly basal. Leaf-sheaths loose, glabrous on surface or pilose, with tubercle-based hairs. Ligule a fringed membrane, 0.75–1.5 mm long, truncate. Leaf-blades flat or revolute, 6–25 cm long, 2–6 mm wide. Leaf-blade surface glabrous or pilose, with tubercle-based hairs. Leaf-blade margins scaberulous.

Inflorescence
Inflorescence subdigitate, with ramose branches. Peduncle 2–3.5 cm long. Racemes 3–5, 4–7 cm long. Central inflorescence axis 0.6–1.3 cm long. Rhachis fragile at the nodes, flattened, villous on margins. Rhachis hairs lengthening towards internode tip, 3–5 mm long. Raceme internodes linear, 2.5–3.5 mm long. Raceme internode tip transverse.

Spikelets
Spikelets in pairs, one sessile and fertile and the other (companion) spikelet pedicelled. Pedicels linear, flattened, 2.5–3.5 mm long, with a translucent median line (also present in internodes), ciliate or villous, hairy all along but hairs longer above, with 3–5 mm long hairs. Companion spikelets represented by single glumes, sterile, linear, 2.5–3.75 mm long, shorter than fertile. Companion spikelet glumes 5–9-nerved, without depressions, glabrous. Fertile spikelets 2-flowered, comprising 1 fertile floret, lower floret sterile, upper fertile, without rhachilla extension, lanceolate, dorsally compressed, 4.75–5.25 mm long, falling entire, deciduous with accessory branch structures. Spikelet callus 0.5 mm long, pilose, base obtuse, attached transversely. Spikelet callus hairs 0.5–1 mm long.

Glumes
Glumes dissimilar, firmer than fertile lemma. Lower glume elliptic, 100% of length of spikelet, cartilaginous, keel-less except near apex, 7–9-nerved, midnerve scaberulous. Lower glume surface flat. Lower glume surface pitted, pilose, hairy below. Lower glume apex acute. Upper glume lanceolate, 1-keeled, 3-nerved. Upper glume surface asperulous, rough at apex.

Florets
Basal sterile floret 1, without significant palea. Lemma of lower sterile floret lanceolate or oblong or ovate, 60% of length of spikelet, hyaline, ciliolate on margins. Fertile lemma linear, 1.75–2 mm long, hyaline. Lemma apex entire, 1-awned. Median (principal) awn apical, geniculate, 15–24 mm long overall, with a twisted column. Column glabrous. Palea absent or minute. Anthers 1, 1.5 mm long. Grain 1.85–2.5 mm long.

Continental Distribution:
Australasia.

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

Northern Territory: Barkly Tableland. Queensland: Cook, Burke, North Kennedy, South Kennedy, Port Curtis, Leichhardt, Burnett, Wide Bay, Darling Downs, Moreton, Gregory North, Mitchell, Warrego, Maranoa. New South Wales: North Coast, Central Coast, Central Tablelands, North-Western Slopes, Central-Western Slopes, South-Western Slopes, North-Western Plains, South-Western Plains.

Classification. (GPWG 2001):
Panicoideae: Andropogoneae

Notes
Endemic. A widespread grass in open forest country of subtropical N.S.W. and Qld and tropical Qld. It is not as palatable as some of the other native species and sometimes becomes locally dominant where preferred species have been grazed out. There are two varieties:

Bothriochloa decipiens (Hack.) C.E.Hubb. var. decipiens
Occurs mainly in the eastern parts of N.S.W. and Qld. Naturalised in one locality in N.T. Flowers all year.

Bothriochloa decipiens (Hack.) C.E.Hubb. var. cloncurrensis (Domin) C.E.Hubb.
Occurs in tropical N.T. (rare) and tropical Qld and considered to be more useful as a fodder grass than the type variety. Flowers Jan.–Sept. and Nov.

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