Common name
Hillside Burrgrass

Derivation
Cenchrus L., Sp. Pl. 1049 (1753) & Gen. Pl. 5th edn, 470 (1754); from the Greek kenchros (millet, Panicum miliaceum).

caliculatus- from the Greek kalyx (cup), -ulus (diminutive) and -atus (possessing). Spikelets subtended by a cup-like involucre of bristles.

Published in
Icon. Descr. Pl. 5: 39 (1799).

Common synonyms
Cenchrus australis R.Br.

Habit
Perennial. Stolons present. Culms robust, 40–200(–300) cm tall. Leaf-sheaths glabrous on surface. Ligule a fringe of hairs, 1–1.6 mm long. Leaf-blades 14–56 cm long, 3–19 mm wide. Leaf-blade surface scabrous.

Inflorescence
Inflorescence solid, a spikelike panicle (bearing clusters of spikelets), linear, loose (internodes 1–3.2 mm), 8.2–23.5 cm long, 1–2.8 cm wide. Primary panicle branches accrescent to a central axis, with sessile scars on axis. Panicle axis angular, pubescent, bearing deciduous spikelet clusters.

Spikelets
Spikelets subtended by an involucre. Involucre composed of bristles, connate into a disc below, with 0.5 mm connate, ovate or globose, 6–10.8 mm long. Involucre base bluntly stipitate (1–3 mm), pubescent. Involucral bristles deciduous with the fertile spikelets, numerous, with an outer whorl of thinner bristles, inner bristles longer than outer, with longest bristle scarcely emergent or with one conspicuously longer bristle, 6–10 mm long, terete, rigid, retrorsely scaberulous, pubescent, spinose. Fertile spikelets 2-flowered, comprising 1 fertile floret, lower floret sterile or male, upper fertile, without rhachilla extension, ovate, dorsally compressed, acuminate, 3.8–6.5 mm long, falling entire, deciduous with accessory branch structures.

Glumes
Glumes thinner than fertile lemma. Lower glume ovate, 1.2–3.5 mm long, 30–50% of length of spikelet, membranous, 1-nerved. Lower glume lateral nerves absent. Lower glume apex acute. Upper glume ovate, 2.4–4.8 mm long, 60–75% of length of spikelet, membranous, 3–5-nerved. Upper glume apex acute.

Florets
Basal sterile florets 1, with palea. Lemma of lower sterile floret ovate, 3.5–6.5 mm long, 100% of length of spikelet, membranous, 5-nerved, acute. Fertile lemma ovate, 3.8–6.1 mm long, coriaceous, much thinner on margins, 3-nerved. Lemma margins flat. Lemma apex obtuse. Palea coriaceous. Anthers 2 mm long. Grain with adherent pericarp.

Continental Distribution:
Temperate Asia, Tropical Asia, Australasia, Pacific.

Australian Distribution:
Queensland, New South Wales.

Queensland: Cook, Burke, North Kennedy, South Kennedy, Port Curtis, Leichhardt, Burnett, Wide Bay, Darling Downs, Moreton. New South Wales: North Coast, Central Coast, South Coast, Northern Tablelands, Central Tablelands, North-Western Slopes, Central-Western Slopes, South-Western Slopes.

Classification. (GPWG 2001):
Panicoideae: Paniceae

Notes
Native. Flowers Dec.–May.

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