Phalaris paradoxa L.
gnawed canary grass
Annuals, 20-80 cm. Leaf-sheath firm with narrow hyaline margin, ribs many, ± finely scabrid; uppermost sheaths conspicuously inflated, glabrous. Ligule 2-4-(6) mm, ± tapered. Leaf-blade 6-20 cm × 3-5.5 mm, tapered, ribs and margins finely scabrid, tip fine, soft, acute. Culm 14-56 cm, branched at base. Panicle 2.5-6 × 0.8-1.5 cm, cylindric, oblong, or widened above; rachis and very short branches scabrid, hidden. Spikelets in groups of 5-7-(9), with one central almost sessile ⚥ spikelet 5-6.5 mm, surrounded by an involucre-like cluster of shorter, unequal, usually Ø, sometimes ♂ spikelets on short glabrous pedicels, two of the Ø spikelets generally larger. Glumes of all spikelets hard, keel sparsely scabrid, wing margin minutely scabrid; glumes of Ø spikelets sometimes sparsely hairy, margins scabrid in upper ⅓, apex rounded or truncate, or occasionally with acute flange; glumes of ⚥ spikelets with 2-6 prominent lateral nerves and often shorter nerves as well, tapering above to acute tip, narrowly winged apart from an acute projecting middorsal flange. Ø florets: lemmas minute, scale-like, equal, glabrous. ⚥ floret: lemma 2.9-3.3 mm, ovate, acute, almost glabrous; palea entirely glabrous or internerve sometimes sparsely hairy; anthers 1-1.6 mm; caryopsis 2-2.6 × 1.2-1.5 mm.
N.: Upper Hutt; S.: North Canterbury (Omihi, near Rangiora), and near Christchurch. In waste and cultivated land.
Naturalised.
Indigenous to the Mediterranean region and south-western Asia.
