Triodia

Triodia pungens, copyright Mark Marathon.

Belongs within: Chloridoideae.

Triodia, spinifex, is a genus of grasses with rigid, spine-like leaves.

Characters (from Cheeseman 1906): Perennial grasses, of very various habit. Leaves narrow, rigid. Spikelets 2- to many-flowered, arranged in a lax or narrow panicle; rhachilla disarticulating above the two outer glumes and between the flowering glumes. Two outer glumes longer or shorter than the flowering glumes, somewhat rigid, empty, keeled, acute, awnless. Flowering glumes more or less imbricated, rounded on the back at the base, coriaceous or chartaceous, often hairy on the margins and callus, 3-nerved, 3-lobed or 3-toothed at the apex, the lobes equal or the central one produced into a short awn or mucro. Palea broad, thin, with 2 almost marginal keels. Lodicules 2. Stamens 3. Styles short, distinct; stigmas plumose. Grain usually compressed on the back, free within the flowering glume and palea.

<==Triodia
    `--T. subg. Rhombolytrum C06
         |--T. australis Petrie 1890 C06
         |    |--T. a. var. australis C06
         |    `--T. a. var. mucronulata Hack. in Cheeseman 1906 C06
         |--T. exigua Kirk 1882 C06
         `--T. pumila Hack. in Cheeseman 1906 [=Atropis pumila Kirk 1882] C06

Triodia incertae sedis:
  T. acuminata S06
  T. acutispicula LK14
  T. aeria LK14
  T. angusta P-JO04
  T. basedowii B05
  T. bitextura EF04
  T. brizoides EF04
  T. burbidgeana LK14
  T. bynoei LK14
  T. caelestialis LK14
  T. claytonii LK14
  T. decumbens C06
  T. epactia LK14
  T. irritans LF10
  T. lanigera HD04
  T. longiceps HD04
  T. longiloba LK14
  T. melvillei B05
  T. microstachya WF01
  T. mitchellii B00
  T. paraguayensis S06
  T. plurinervata KM08
  T. pungens HD04
  T. rigidissima G04
  T. scariosa CWB06
  T. schinzii B05
  T. secunda HD04
  T. stenostachya LK14
  T. wiseana BS05

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[B05] Beard, J. S. 2005. Drainage evolution in the Lake Disappointment Catchment, Western Australia—a discussion. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 88 (2): 57–64.

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

[BS05] Butcher, R., & L. W. Sage. 2005. Tetratheca fordiana (Elaeocarpaceae), a new species from the Pilbara of Western Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 88 (2): 73–76.

[C06] Cheeseman, T. F. 1906. Manual of the New Zealand Flora. John Mackay, Government Printer: Wellington.

[CWB06] Craig, M. D., P. C. Withers & S. D. Bradshaw. 2006. Patterns of diet and microhabitat use by four species of sympatric Ctenotus lizards: do they reveal foraging specialisation? Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 89 (1): 1–5.

[EF04] Etten, E. J. B. van, & J. E. D. Fox. 2004. Vegetation classification and ordination of the central Hamersley Ranges, Western Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 87 (2): 63–79.

[G04] Gibson, N. 2004. 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.

[HD04] How, R. A., & J. Dell. 2004. Reptile assemblage of the Abydos Plain, north-eastern Pilbara, Western Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 87 (3): 85–95.

[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.

[LF10] Langlands, P. R., & V. W. Framenau. 2010. Systematic revision of Hoggicosa Roewer, 1960, the Australian 'bicolor' group of wolf spiders (Araneae: Lycosidae). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 158: 83–123.

[LK14] Lyons, M. N., G. J. Keighery, L. A. Gibson & T. Handasyde. 2014. Flora and vegetation communities of selected islands off the Kimberley coast of Western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 81: 205–244.

[P-JO04] Pruett-Jones, S., & E. O'Donnell. 2004. Land birds on Barrow Island: status, population estimates, and responses to an oil-field development. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 87 (3): 101–108.

[S06] Stuckert, T. 1906. Segunda contribución al conocimiento de las gramináceas Argentinas. Anales del Museo Nacional de Buenos Aires, serie 3, 6: 408–555.

[WF01] Woinarski, J. C. Z., A. Fisher, K. Brennan, I. Morris & R. Chatto. 2001. Patterns of bird species richness and composition on islands off Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia. Austral Ecology 26: 1–13.