Citation: Hackel, Verh.bot. Ver. Prov. Brandenb. 30:142 (1888).

Synonymy: P. laevifolium Hackel, Bull. Herb. Boiss. 3:378 (1895); P. laevifolium Hackel var. contractum Pilger, Notizbl. Bot. Gart. Berlin 15:448 (1940).

Common name: Sweet panic.

Description:
Annual 30-80 cm high; leaf blades flat or folded, 3-8 mm broad, the sheaths of the stem leaves glabrous or sparsely hairy, the main rhachis of the panicle usually glabrous; ligule short, ciliate.

Panicle to 20 cm long, compound, loose, the branches slender and the lowest 1 or 2 branches solitary, some of the upper ones in pairs or 3's; spikelets usually in pairs, unequally pedicellate, glabrous, light-green sometimes purplish, subacute, 2-3.5 mm long; first glume hyaline, subacute, to about one-third of the length of the spikelet, with a prominent mid-nerve; second glume as long as the spikelet, 7-11-nerved; first lemma equal to the second glume, male, enclosing a palea, second (fertile) lemma smooth and shining.

Published illustration: Cunningham et al. (1982) Plants of western New South Wales, p. 120.

Distribution:  S.Aust.: MU, SL, SE.   All mainland States except the N.T. Conservation status: naturalised Flowering time: late summer.

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

Biology: This species is apparently very similar to P. whitei.

Author: Not yet available