Common name: Mulga Mitchell Grass
Thyridolepis mitchelliana (Nees) S.T.Blake APNI* Synonyms: Neurachne mitchelliana Nees APNI*
Description: Erect perennials to c. 50 cm tall, branching at the nodes, with a bulbous base. Nodes densely pubescent.
Sheaths pubescent at the base, often becoming glabrescent upwards; margins ciliate and with long tubercle-based hairs; collar and/or orifice densely pubescent; ligule hairs to c. 0.5 mm long; blade 2.5–4.5 mm wide, with a pseudopetiole c. 0.5 mm long, the margins with few to many long stiff tubercle-based hairs that extend to the loosely pubescent lower surface; upper surface densely pubescent near the base.
Inflorescence narrowly oblong, more or less villous at least in the upper part, 1.5–3.5 cm long and 7–9 mm wide, long exserted. Spikelets cleistogamous, 4.5–7.5 mm long, 1.7–2 mm wide (excluding the bristles), ± villous; lower spikelets with shorter bristles, less hairy to ± glabrous, more distant, somewhat reduced. Glumes ± beaked, the internode between them c.0.5–1 mm long; lower glume 4–7 mm long, transverse ridge from just below to just above the middle (c. 2.5–3 mm from the base), 0.4–0.7 mm across, 0.3–0.4 mm long with 9–29 bristles each 1.3–3.6 mm long, sometimes with a few tubercles on the back with or without a single bristle; window narrowly ovate, 0.9–1.3 mm wide; upper glume commonly reaching the top of the spikelet, 3.5–6 mm long, embracing the lower lemma, shortly 3-toothed,; narrowed apex 40–50% the total length of the glume, c. 11-nerved; back pubescent to villous, tuberculate with a dense series of transversely widened tubercles; tubercles 0.2–0.3 mm long with long obliquely spreading very slender to stout bristle-like hairs or bristles to 3.5 mm long; warts on the back without bristles sometimes. Lower lemma sterile, c. 3–4 mm long; narrowed apex 25–33% the length; palea 2-keeled below, to 0.4 mm long or absent. Fertile lemma 3.5–5 mm long, 1.2–1.5 mm wide, scarcely shining, not rugulose, biconvex with a beak 25–33% the length; palea embraced all along.
Flowering: Flowers in response to rain.
Distribution and occurrence: Grows in sandy or stony soils, often associated with Mulga.
NSW subdivisions: NWS, CWS, NWP, SWP, NFWP, SFWP
Other Australian states: Qld W.A. S.A. N.T.
Text by Jacobs, S.W.L., Whalley, R.D.B. & Wheeler, D.J.B.
Taxon concept: Grasses of New South Wales, Fourth Edition (2008).
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data
***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
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