Soft Tussock-grass - native (Poa morrisii)

Native. Perennial. C3.

Family. Poaceae (Grass family).

Identification:

• the flowers form a sparse spray
• the glumes are about as long as the lemmas
• the spikelets have 3-8 unawned lemmas which are hairy on bottom part
• the leaves are flat or sometimes folded and softly hairy
• the ligule is membranous and 1-5mm long.

Soft Tussock-grass resembles Grey Tussock-grass, except that the stalks and leaves are softly hairy with spreading hairs to about 1mm long. The leaves are often greyish. The glumes are also often shortly hairy. A variety of Grey Tussock-grass also has hairy leaves; these hairs are short and stiff, less than 0.5mm and usually inclined to the leaf surface.

Poa: grass (Greek); morrisii: in honour of Patrick Francis Morris, 1896-1974, Australian botanist.