Flora of New Zealand Series

canary grass

Slender to stout, tufted annuals, 35-90 cm. Leaf-sheath firm, minutely scabrid or smooth, striate, green to light brown, upper sheaths slightly inflated. Ligule 2-6 mm, tapered, erose. Leaf-blade 7.5-30 cm × 4-10 mm, finely ribbed, ribs minutely scabrid; margins finely scabrid, long-narrowed to acute tip. Culm 30-80 cm, often branched near base, internodes scabrid just below panicle. Panicle 2-3.5-(6) × 1.5-2.5 cm, ovoid to ovoid-oblong, subtended by a hard, scabrid, very short bract; rachis and branches hidden, finely scabrid-papillose. Spikelets 7-8.5 mm, pale greenish cream, rarely purplish. Glumes ± equal, 3-5-nerved, oblanceolate with abrupt acute tip, sparsely hairy, cream with green bands along nerves, keel minutely scabrid, broadly winged in upper ½. Ø florets: lemmas equal, 2.5-4 mm, lanceolate, acute, very sparsely hairy. ⚥ floret: lemma 4.5-5.6 mm, ovate, acute, shining, silky-haired; palea narrower than lemma; anthers 2-3.8 mm; caryopsis c. 4 × 1.4 mm.

N.; S.: occasional throughout; Ch. Waste land.

Naturalised from western Mediterranean.