Isachne globosa
(Thunb.) Kuntze Swamp MilletSemi-aquatic perennial, culms erect, to 60 cm high. Leaves mostly cauline, glabrous or with a few hairs on upper part of sheath; blade flat, 3–10 cm long, 3–8 mm wide, finely scabrous on margins and lower surface; ligule ciliate, c. 1 mm long. Inflorescence an open pyramidal or ovoid panicle with fine spreading branches, to 10 cm long and 8 cm wide. Spikelets plump, globoid to obovoid; glumes subequal, membranous, 2–2.5 mm long, glabrous or very sparsely pubescent; lower floret male, rarely bisexual, equal to glumes, upper floret female or bisexual, slightly shorter than lower and with firmer lemma and palea, the former enclosing the latter at the margins. Flowers Sep.–Jun.
GleP, VVP, VRiv, GipP, OtP, WaP, CVU, NIS, EGL, EGU, HSF, HNF, OtR, VAlp. Also SA, Qld, NSW. Pacific islands, south-east Asia to India. Occurs in swamps and margins of larger water-courses mostly north of the Great Dividing Range, less common in south-eastern Victoria and rare in the west (e.g. near Portland, southern Grampians and mouth of Gellibrand River).
Although fruiting spikelets develop freely, the grain (caryopsis) often remains undeveloped.
Walsh, N.G. (1994). Poaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 2, Ferns and Allied Plants, Conifers and Monocotyledons, pp. 356–627. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
Spinning
