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Australian Sweet-grass

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Australian Sweet-grass photos

Scientific Name:Glyceria australis
Australian Sweet-grass growing in shallow water
Australian Sweet-grass growing in shallow water
Photo: A J Brown

Status:

Native to southern Australia.

Plant
Description:

Shortly rhizomatous perennial grass to 1 m high with hairless leaves to 50 cm long and 8 mm wide. Leaf sheaths are tubular and non-split (as in most grasses) except near the junction of leaf blade and stem. Flower-heads are slender open panicles, 20-50 cm long. Spikelets 5-12 flowered and 10-30 mm long. Each floret is awnless and noticeably 7-nerved.

Habitat:

Scattered across temperate Victoria, on swamps, shallow lakes and the edges of streams.


RegionSalinity ClassWaterlogging Class
Central and Northern, Wimmera, Western, GippslandS0W2, W3

Comments:

Similar in general appearance, growth habit and habitat as
Common Swamp Wallaby-grass (Amphibromus nervosus) but immediately obvious due to the lack of floret awns. Has similar spikelets to Australian Saltmarsh-grass (Puccinellia stricta) but distinguished by its closed leaf-sheath and is never found in saline environments.

Australian Sweet-grass photos

Closed leaf sheath (showing septum) of Australian Sweet-grass
Closed sheath (showing septum) of Australian Sweet-grass
Photo: A J Brown
Emerging flower-head of Australian Sweet-grass
Emerging flower-head of Australian Sweet-grass
Photo: A J Brown

Spikelets of Australian Sweet-grass
Spikelets of Australian Sweet-grass
Photo: A J Brown
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