Hard Spinifex

Description

Hummock-forming perennial to c. 1 m high and 1.5 m diam. Leaves with ligule a ciliate rim with hairs < 1 mm long; orifice woolly with hairs to 2 mm long; blade folded, sharply pointed, glabrous. Inflorescence open, 7-13 cm long, to 3 cm wide, much exserted. Spikelets 10-18 mm long, florets 6-12, uppermost floret sometimes reduced; pedicels 2-10 mm long, minutely scabrous, glabrous. Glumes 6.5-10 mm long, acute to acuminate, keeled, smooth, glabrous, margins sometimes ciliate with hairs to 2 mm long. Lemmas 5-10 mm long, 3-lobed, smooth, lower 50% silky with hairs to 1 mm long, silky toward margins with hairs to 2 mm long; lobe margins ciliolate, lateral lobes c. 4 mm long, obtuse to acute, central lobe c. 5 mm long, subulate, narrower than lateral lobes; palea subequal to entire part of lemma.