Plant. Photo: Pavel Sinkyrik, Czech Republic.

Plant and seeds. Line drawing in Hitchcock, A.S. (rev. A. Chase). 1950. Manual of the grasses of the United States

Common Name

Wild Oats, Black Oat

Family

Poaceae

Notes

Introduced annual grass, 30cm-1.6m tall.  Leaves mostly basal, basal and alternating along the stem, or alternating along the stem, with a hairless sheath at the base.  Ligule a membrane without a fringe of hairs. Leaf blades flat, 10-45cm long, 3-15mm wide, surface hairless, sometimes rough, with a pointed tip.  Spikelets 15-30mm long excluding the awns. Mature seed groups spreading. Seeds with one long awn on each of paired seeds.

Notes on the differences betwenn Avena barbata and Avena fatua in GM Cunningham, WE Mulham, PL Milthorpe and JH Leigh (1981 and later printings) Plants of Western New South Wales page 62

Description in G.M. Cunningham, WE Mulham, PL Milthorpe and J H Leigh (1981 and later printings) Plants of Western New South Wales page 62

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Avena~fatua

ausgrass2 description, photo, and line drawings:  http://ausgrass2.myspecies.info/content/avena-fatua