Rytidosperma laeve
Bare-backed Wallaby Grass at Farrer, ACT
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| Rytidosperma laeve | Tapirlord | 31 Aug 2022 | |
| Rytidosperma (genus) | Tapirlord | 27 Aug 2022 |
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User's notes
One seedhead, but at 10 tussocks. Will seek a species ID from Graeme lorimer
1 comment
31 Aug 2022
That's easy, even with just the first photo.
That photo shows:
prominent hairs on the callus (top-right);
a prominent row of long hairs around the 'waist'; and
critically, in the middle, a tuft of shorter hairs. (There must be a matching tuft hidden behind it.).
Nearly all wallaby-grasses outside the alps and subalps have a continuous row of hairs in the middle, except R. laeve, the Smooth Wallaby-grass.
Also, the overall shape of the seed (floret) and smoothness of the lemma body are distinctive to the trained eye. Damp grassy places are the favoured habitat of R. laeve, consistent with your specimen.
You might have noticed when you took your photos that the glumes are broader toward the base than normal for a wallaby-grass and they look whiter than usual when mature. The species' inflorescence size is unremarkable for a wallaby-grass. It's lowest branch or two are more inclined to deflex at anthesis than most species other than R. duttonianum, which also favours damp ground but on heavier soils.
It's a quite common species in higher-rainfall parts of southeastern Australia.
Regards,
Graeme
That photo shows:
prominent hairs on the callus (top-right);
a prominent row of long hairs around the 'waist'; and
critically, in the middle, a tuft of shorter hairs. (There must be a matching tuft hidden behind it.).
Nearly all wallaby-grasses outside the alps and subalps have a continuous row of hairs in the middle, except R. laeve, the Smooth Wallaby-grass.
Also, the overall shape of the seed (floret) and smoothness of the lemma body are distinctive to the trained eye. Damp grassy places are the favoured habitat of R. laeve, consistent with your specimen.
You might have noticed when you took your photos that the glumes are broader toward the base than normal for a wallaby-grass and they look whiter than usual when mature. The species' inflorescence size is unremarkable for a wallaby-grass. It's lowest branch or two are more inclined to deflex at anthesis than most species other than R. duttonianum, which also favours damp ground but on heavier soils.
It's a quite common species in higher-rainfall parts of southeastern Australia.
Regards,
Graeme
Location information
- Coordinates 149.113219-35.385861
- Altitude 712.2m
- Maps Farrer Ridge
- Places Farrer, ACT
Sighting information
- 15 Abundance
- 14 Aug 2022 11:58 AM Recorded on
- Tapirlord Recorded by
- Less than 10cm Plant height
Collections
Species information
- Rytidosperma laeve Scientific name
- Bare-backed Wallaby Grass Common name
- Not Sensitive
- Local native
- Non-invasive or negligible
- Up to 1316.28m Recorded at altitude
- External link More information
Record quality
Quality score
6 / 7
- Images or audio
- More than one media file
- Verified by an expert moderator
- GPS evidence of location
- Description
- Additional attributes
- Nearby sighting(s) of same species