Name

Triodia mallota B.M.Anderson & M.D.Barrett, ined.

Citation

Austral. Syst. Bot., in press, (2017)

Derivation

mallota — from the Greek mallotos (fleecy, woolly) in reference to the woolly indumentum on the leaf sheaths and orifices.

Common name

Pannawonica Woolly Spinifex

Synonyms

Triodia sp. Pannawonica (B.M. Anderson & M.D. Barrett BMA 89

Diagnostic features

Foliage non-resinous; leaves amphistomatous (hard-type); orifice and sheaths densely woolly; inflorescence unbranched; pedicels 1–2 mm long; lower glume 9–14-nerved; lemma shortly 3-lobed, indurated for most of its length, not bitextured; lowest lemma midlobe 0.2–1.8 mm long; only known from rocky metasandstone/chert slopes near Pannawonica in the west Pilbara

Habitat

Occurs on rocky hillslopes that are a mixture of metasandstone and chert, and is not known from the pisolite mesas that are the dominant rocky substrates in the area.

Distribution and frequency

Endemic to the Pilbara, where it is known only from a single small population near Pannawonica.

Similar species

A member of the Basedowii group, sharing the group features of non-resinous foliage, amphistomatous (hard-type) leaf blades and many-nerved (≥6) glumes. Only two other members of the Basedowii group (T. infesta and T. plurinervata) share the unbranched inflorescence and short pedicels 1–2 mm long; both species have glabrous to loosely hairy leaf sheaths and orifices (densely woolly in T. mallota), leaf blades <10 cm long (7–18.5 cm in T. mallota), and occur to the south-west or east of the Pilbara.

Triodia spicata also has an unbranched inflorescence and short pedicels, but has 1–3-nerved glumes, glabrous leaf sheaths, and a distribution east of the Pilbara.

Conservation status

Priority One.

Identification without florets

The features above apply in the absence of florets.

Variation

A uniform species as currently known.

Notes

Triodia mallota was not represented in Lazarides (1997), Lazarides et al. (2005) or Ausgrass (Sharp & Simon, 2002; Simon & Alonso, 2014).

A full description of T. mallota can be found in Anderson et al. (2017a).

The single known population appears to have reduced genetic variation compared to other Triodia species (Anderson et al. 2017b).