Citation: Forsskål, Fl. Aegypt.-Arab. 178 (1775).

Synonymy: Anthistiria australis R. Br., Prod. Fl. Nov. Holl. 200 (1810); T. australis (R. Br.) Stapf, Fl. Trop. Afr. 9:420 (1919); A. ciliata sensu Benth., Fl. Aust. 7:542 (1878), non L.f.

Common name: Kangaroo grass.

Description:
Erect glabrous perennial, to 90 cm high; leaf blades narrow, with more or less revolute margins and scabrous above; ligule short, truncate, ciliolate; nodes glabrous.

Panicle loose, interrupted, 10-20 cm long; fertile spikelet fusiform, whitish when young, finally glossy-brown, glabrous except for a few short golden hairs near the summit, 5-6 mm long; callus 2-3 mm long, villous with long golden-reddish hairs; sessile (involucral) spikelets inserted at apparently the same level, 13-14 mm long, glabrous; the 2 pedicellate ones rather shorter, their pedicels glabrous; awn pubescent, usually twice bent, 5-7 cm long, the column 2.5-3 cm long, pubescent, reddish-brown, rigid, loosely twisted.

Published illustration: Burbidge (1970) Australian grasses 3:pl. 92.

Distribution:  S.Aust.: NW, LE, GT, FR, EA, EP, NL, MU, YP, SL, SE.   All States.   Africa and Asia. Conservation status: native Flowering time: throughout the year.

SA Distribution Map based on current data relating to specimens held in the State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: The Australian species has been treated as distinct from T. triandra, which was then considered to be confined to the Old World. Clayton & Renvoize (1982), Fl. Trop. East Afr. Gramineae (3):830, and Simon (1985), Aust. Syst. Bot. Soc. Newsl. 43:15-17, are followed in combining these species.

Author: Not yet available