Flora of New Zealand Series

barley grass

Loosely tufted, light green annuals, 10-70 cm. Leaf-sheath green to light straw-coloured, with hyaline, clasping, glabrous auricles 1.5-3 mm, upper glabrous, uppermost ± inflated. Ligule 0.3-1 mm, rounded, minutely ciliate. Leaf-blade soft, flat, with scattered, long, fine hairs, ribs glabrous or very finely scabrid; margins very finely scabrid, tip acute. Culm 6-50 cm, erect or geniculate; internodes glabrous. Raceme very dense-flowered, oblong, 4-10 × 1-3.5 cm, including the erect or sometimes spreading awns; rachis fragile. Central ⚥ spikelet sessile or pedicelled; lateral spikelets ♂ or Ø, pedicels 1-1.5 mm. Lateral spikelets: glumes unequal, ± dissimilar, outer very narrow, scabrid, ± awn-like throughout, inner slightly wider near base awn-like above; lemma adaxially copiously hairy, awned; palea = lemma, keels scabrid near minutely bifid ciliate apex; rachilla prolongation 2.5-3.5 mm; lodicules ciliate. Central spikelet: glumes equal, similar, 15-30 mm, widened near base, margins ciliate, awn-like and scabrid above; lemma 7-14 mm, lanceolate, long awned; palea = lemma, folded, keels scabrid above; rachilla prolongation 4-5 mm; lodicules 1.0-1.8 mm, ciliate. Gynoecium: ovary 0.6-1 mm; stigma-styles 1-2 mm. Caryopsis 5-9.5 × 1.5-2 mm; embryo 1.5 mm. Fig. 14. Plate 3C.