Fern Grass - introduced (*Catapodium rigidum)

Other names: *Desmazeria rigida.

Family: Poaceae (Grass family).

Native of western and southern Europe.

Occurrence: Uncommon weed. It may be locally abundant.

Identification:

• it is a small grass growing to about 20 cm
• the leaves are hairless
• the flowers are on one side of the main stem(s)
• each flower (spikelet) has four to ten husks
• the inner husks (lemmas) are rounded, and are without awns.

Notes: Fern Grass resembles a poa (with which it was once grouped). The flowers of Fern Grass are larger and the husks are more widely spaced.

L: Fern Grass. The plant is an annual and has died off. The flowers are on one side of the main stem (on the upper side in the illustration ), and each flower (spikelet) has numerous husks. Below: It may have a single flowering stem or be multi-stemmed. Both samples from cr Lyttleton St and Hargraves St, Castlemaine.