Lolium temulentum L.
darnel
Stiff, stout, erect annuals, 35-100 cm; branching intravaginal. Leaf-sheath glabrous, light brown. Auricles to 1 mm, spreading, or 0. Ligule 0.8-1.5 mm, truncate. Leaf-blade 10-22 cm × 3-4.5-(6) mm, flat, abaxially glabrous, adaxially scaberulous or rarely smooth; margins smooth below, scabrid near tapered acute tip. Culm 20-60 cm, internodes closely scabrid above or smooth. Spike 10-20-(34) cm, erect; rachis 1-2 mm wide, smooth or finely scabrid on convex side, margins scaberulous. Spikelets 10-30 mm, 5-12-flowered, green; florets turgid at maturity. Upper glume 10-22 mm, < to > spikelet, 7-9-nerved, rigid, oblong-lanceolate, obtuse or subacute, smooth or scabrid. Lemma 5.5-9.5 mm, elliptic to ovate, smooth below, becoming hard at maturity, apex hyaline, scabrid, bifid, awned from sinus; awn fine, strongly scabrid, 1-13 mm, or 0. Palea = lemma. Anthers 2-3 mm. Caryopsis 5-6 × 2-2.5 mm.
N.: North Cape, Auckland City, Opotiki district, Wellington City and environs; S.: Canterbury (Akaroa and Ashburton), Otago (Hawea Flat and Matukituki R.). Roadsides, waste land, paddocks.
Naturalised from Mediterranean.
HYBRIDS
All spp. of Lolium are ± interfertile. They also cross readily with Schedonorus phoenix, tall fescue, and its allies, forming ± sterile hybrids.
Lolium multiflorum × L. perenne hybrids (L. ×hybridum Hausskn.) often occur in N.Z. and were first recorded as naturalised by Allan, H. H. N.Z. J. Sci. Tech. 9: 260 (1929). Hybrid cultivars have also been bred in N.Z. to combine the persistence of L. perenne with the higher productivity of L. multiflorum. These hybrids when growing in the wild tend to segregate and it is impossible to give a definitive description since many combinations of the parental characters occur. An earlier name, L. ×boucheanum Kunth, is applied to these hybrids in New Zealand. Terrell (1968 op. cit.) placed L. ×boucheanum in synonymy under L. perenne. He was uncertain whether the name referred to an awned form of L. perenne or to a L. multiflorum × L. perenne hybrid.
Plants of L. multiflorum with branched inflorescences are probably hybrids with tall fescue, Schedonorus phoenix × Lolium multiflorum. Forms with abnormal, branched spikelets are also found occasionally.
Lolium temulentum is widespread in temperate regions of both Hemispheres.
Slender specimens from Auckland - Beresford St., T. Kirk undated (WELT 71438, CHR 4102, and probably CHR 19265) and Hepburn St., Jan. 1864 (WELT 71444) - with culm 20-30 cm and spikes consisting of only 1-2 spikelets seem to be depauperate forms of L. temulentum.
Plants with very short awns or no awns, were recorded as L. arvense With., by Hooker, J. D. Handbk N.Z. Fl. 343 (1864). Terrell (1968 op. cit.) regarded the degree of development or absence of awns as a minor character in L. temulentum, and considered that the rank of forma was better applied to muticous or short-awned plants i.e., L. temulentum forma arvense (With.) Junge.
No specimens have been found to substantiate J. F. Armstrong's record of L. temulentum var. ramosum Guss. for Canterbury [T.N.Z.I. 4: 309 (1872)]. This name has been applied in Europe to plants with branched spikes.
