Grey Tussock-grass - native (Poa sieberiana)

Native. Perennial. C3.

Family. Poaceae (Grass family).

It is widespread and very common in forest areas.

Identification:

• the leaves form tussocks, typically less than 20cm across
• the flower cluster is an open spray
• the glumes are about as long as the lemmas
• the spikelets have 2-7 unawned lemmas which are hairy on the bottom part
• the leaves are flat or sometimes folded
• the ligule is membranous and 1-5mm long.

Red-anther Wallaby-grass (Rytidosperma pallidum) is also a very common tussock grass in local forests. It is larger, with tussocks often 50cm or more across. It also has tall flower stalks (to a metre or more) and larger flowers, and the lemmas are awned. When not in flower, they can be distinguished by the ligules; firm, membranous and c0.5mm long for Grey Tussock-grass, and a dense line of hairs for Red-anther Wallaby Grass.

A variety of Grey Tussock-grass (Poa sieberiana var hirtella ) has hairy leaves. The hairs are short (to 0.5mm) and stiff and are at an angle to the leaf. Soft Tussock-grass (P. morrisii ) is also hairy, with soft hairs to about a millimtetre long.

Poa: grass (Greek); sieberiana: after F.W. Sieber, an Austrian botanist (1789-1844). He visited N.S.W. in 1823.

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