Panic Veldt-grass - introduced (*Ehrhartia erecta)

Native to South Africa. Perennial. C3.

Family. Poaceae (Grass family).

Occurrence: Panic Veldt-grass is a widespread and common weed in built up areas.

Identification:

• the flowers are along slender arms branching from the main stem
• the glumes are shorter than the spikelets
• the spikelets have two sterile lemmas below the fertile lemma
• the lemmas and glumes are unawned and the lemmas have corrugations at the side
• the leaves are flat
• the ligule is 2-3mm long, and blunt or truncate
• the branches of the flower spray tend to be more or less at right angles to the main stem.

Veldt grasses have flowers clustered into a slender spray. The spikelets have three florets; a bisexual floret above two sterile florets

The flowers of Panic Veldt-grass are in an open branched spray.

The erect habit, the distinctive panicle arms, and the corrugated lemmas make this a distinctive grass.

It is an environmental weed.

Ehrhartia: After F. Ehrhart, an 18th century Swiss botanist; erecta: upright, perpendicular.

---