Austrostipa

Soft speargrass Austrostipa mollis, from here.

Belongs within: Poaceae.

Austrostipa, speargrass, is a genus of grasses endemic to Australasia.

Characters (from New South Wales Flora Online): Perennials (rarely annuals) of various habit. Auricles often present, sometimes one-sided, grading into an usually membranous ligule. Blade rolled or folded in bud, convolute, terete or flat, usually scabrous or hairy. Inflorescence an open or contracted panicle, axis persistent or falling as a whole. Spikelets borne singly, pedicellate, disarticulating above the glumes; 1 bisexual floret. Glumes equal or unequal. 1–5-nerved, longer than the floret; a long or short bearded callus below each floret. Lemma terete, hardened, with convolute or involute margins enclosing the palea, usually 5-nerved, with or without 1–2 minute lobes, awned from the tip or between the lobes; awn with once or twice geniculate twisted column and a straight or curved bristle. Palea membranous. 0–2-nerved, longer or shorter than the lemma. Lodicles 3 or 2.

<==Austrostipa
    |--A. acrociliata G04b
    |--A. compressa RL05
    |--A. crinita KM08
    |--A. elegantissima KM08
    |--A. eremophila B00
    |--A. flavescens SM06
    |--A. hemipogon OS04
    |--A. juncifolia GK00
    |--A. mollis OS04
    |--A. nitida KM08
    |--A. platychaeta G04b
    |--A. pycnostachya GK00
    |--A. scabra B00
    |--A. semibarbata B00
    |--A. tenuifolia OS04
    |--A. trichophylla G04a
    `--A. variabilis OS04

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[B00] Braby, M. F. 2000. Butterflies of Australia: their identification, biology and distribution vol. 1. CSIRO Publishing: Collingwood (Victoria).

[G04a] Gibson, N. 2004a. Flora and vegetation of the Eastern Goldfields Ranges: part 6. Mt Manning Range. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 87 (2): 35–47.

[G04b] Gibson, N. 2004b. Flora and vegetation of the Eastern Goldfields Ranges: part 7. Middle and South Ironcap, Digger Rock and Hatter Hill. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 87 (2): 49–62.

[GK00] Gibson, N., & G. J. Keighery. 2000. Flora and vegetation of the Byenup-Muir reserve system, south-west Western Australia. CALMScience 3 (3): 323–402.

[KM08] Keighery, G. J., & W. Muir. 2008. Vegetation and vascular flora of Faure Island, Shark Bay, Western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 75: 11–19.

[OS04] Obbens, F. J., & L. W. Sage. 2004. Vegetation and flora of a diverse upland remnant of the Western Australian wheatbelt (Nature Reserve A21064). Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 87 (1): 19–28.

[RL05] Rafferty, C., & B. B. Lamont. 2005. Selective feeding by macropods on vegetation regenerating following fire. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 88 (4): 155–165.

[SM06] Semeniuk, C. A., L. A. Milne, P. Ladd & V. Semeniuk. 2006. Pollen in the surface sediments of wetlands in the Becher Point area, southwestern Australia: a baseline for use in interpreting Holocene sequences. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 89 (1): 27–43.