Bothriochloa decipiens (Hack.) C.E.Hubb. |
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, 30200 cm tall,
59-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, 0.751.5 mm long, truncate. Leaf-blades
flat or revolute, 625 cm long, 26 mm wide. Leaf-blade surface glabrous
or pilose, with tubercle-based hairs. Leaf-blade margins scaberulous.
Inflorescence
Inflorescence subdigitate, with ramose branches. Peduncle 23.5 cm long.
Racemes 35, 47 cm long. Central inflorescence axis 0.61.3
cm long. Rhachis fragile at the nodes, flattened, villous on margins. Rhachis
hairs lengthening towards internode tip, 35 mm long. Raceme internodes
linear, 2.53.5 mm long. Raceme internode tip transverse.
Spikelets
Spikelets in pairs, one sessile and fertile and the other (companion) spikelet
pedicelled. Pedicels linear, flattened, 2.53.5 mm long, with a translucent
median line (also present in internodes), ciliate or villous, hairy all along
but hairs longer above, with 35 mm long hairs. Companion spikelets represented
by single glumes, sterile, linear, 2.53.75 mm long, shorter than fertile.
Companion spikelet glumes 59-nerved, without depressions, glabrous. Fertile
spikelets 2-flowered, comprising 1 fertile floret, lower floret sterile, upper
fertile, without rhachilla extension, lanceolate, dorsally compressed, 4.755.25
mm long, falling entire, deciduous with accessory branch structures. Spikelet
callus 0.5 mm long, pilose, base obtuse, attached transversely. Spikelet callus
hairs 0.51 mm long.
Glumes
Glumes dissimilar, firmer than fertile lemma. Lower glume elliptic, 100%
of length of spikelet, cartilaginous, keel-less except near apex, 79-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, 1.752 mm long, hyaline. Lemma apex entire,
1-awned. Median (principal) awn apical, geniculate, 1524 mm long overall,
with a twisted column. Column glabrous. Palea absent or minute. Anthers 1, 1.5
mm long. Grain 1.852.5 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:
Slender plants to 1 m tall | B. decipiens var. decipiens (NSW QLD) |
Robust plants 12 m tall | B. decipiens var. cloncurrensis (NT QLD) |
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.
Habit (photo)
© Queensland Herbarium
photographer unknown