Agrostis gigantea
Roth Red-top BentRhizomatous perennial, culms ascending to erect, to 150 cm high. Leaves glabrous; blade flat or inrolled, smooth or slightly scabrous, to 20 cm long and 8 mm wide; ligule obtuse, usually toothed, to 6 mm long. Inflorescence a usually somewhat contracted panicle, 8–25 cm long, the branches remaining inclined to the main axis. Clavate apex of pedicel scabrous. Spikelets 2–3 mm long, purplish-brown to, rarely, green; glumes subequal, firmly membranous, narrowly acute, scabrous along the keel; lemma membranous, with shortly hairy callus, apex truncate or the nerves exserted as short points, two-thirds to three-quarters as long as glumes, rarely a weak subterminal awn present, not exceeding the lemma apex; palea about half as long as lemma. Flowers Nov.–Feb.
Naturalized in all States except NT, North America, New Zealand. Indigenous to much of Europe and temperate Asia. Known with certainty in Victoria from suburban Melbourne, Geelong area, Healesville, Oxley area and Mt Buffalo, but no reliable collections made in Victoria since 1961.
References in early literature to this species are attributable to misdeterminations of Agrostis capillaris and A. stolonifera.
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
