Lamarckia aurea
(L.) Moench Golden-topCulms to 20 cm high. Leaf-blades smooth, to 10 cm long and 6 mm wide; ligules 5–15 mm long, long-tapered, soon shredding. Panicle to 6 cm long, 2.5 cm wide, yellowish at maturity; sterile spikelets 5–10 mm long, the 4–10 empty lemmas obovate, c. 1.5 mm long, membranous, toothed at apex; fertile spikelets 2-flowered (but the smaller, upper floret sterile), c. 3–4 mm long (excluding awns), lemma lanceolate, c. 2.5 mm long, minutely pubescent toward apex, awn straight, 4–7 mm long, inserted just below lemma apex; palea subequal to lemma; glumes of both sterile and fertile spikelets similar, acuminate, 3–4 mm long, subequal. Flowers Aug.–Nov.
LoM, MuM, Wim, VVP, VRiv, MSB, RobP, MuF, GipP, CVU, NIS. Also naturalised in WA, SA, Qld, NSW. Pakistan, southern Africa, North America etc. A locally abundant weed of dry, sandy sites in the north and west, usually on disturbed ground (e.g. Mildura, Dimboola, Donald, Rochester districts) with isolated occurrences in the suburbs of Melbourne and Bacchus Marsh.
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
