Rigid Panic - native (Walwhalleya proluta)

Native. Perennial. C3.

Family. Poaceae (Grass family).

Other names: Whalleya proluta, Homopholis proluta.

Identification

• the flower cluster opens to a very open and spreading panicle
• the first glume is more than half the length of the spikelet
• the spikelet has two florets, the 1st sterile and the 2nd fertile
• the veins of the upper glume and the first lemma are thickened and prominent
• the leaves are flat.

Rigid Panic resembles a Panicum, in which it was once included. Walwhalleya differs from Panicum in that the 1st glume is 0.6 to subequal to the length of the spiklet.

Walwhalleya: after R.D.B.Whalley, grassland ecologist from University of New England; proluta: wet, washed.

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