Cynosurus cristatus L.
crested dogstail
Compactly tufted perennials, 10-75-(85) cm. Leaf-sheath sub-coriaceous, smooth below, minutely scabrid and keeled above near ligule. Ligule 0.4-1.8 mm, truncate, erose to ciliate. Leaf-blade (2.5)-7-24 cm × 1-4 mm, glabrous, or adaxially with minute prickle-teeth or hairs; margins glabrous, narrowed to long, scabrid, acuminate tip. Culm 2-70 cm, erect, internodes glabrous. Panicle 2-10-(15) cm, to 12 mm wide but usually quite narrow, secund, linear, spike-like, stiff, narrow-oblong, erect or slightly curved; rachis and very short branches with minute prickle-teeth or hairs. ⚥ and Ø spikelets mixed together in dense clusters, green to purplish; occasionally proliferous: Ø spikelets 3.3-5.5 mm, persistent, ovate, flattened, of 7-10 acute to acuminate narrow bracts, 2.5-3.8 mm, 1-nerved, scabrid on nerve, margins hyaline; ⚥ spikelets 4-6 mm, 2-5-flowered, elliptic-oblong. Glumes persistent, ± equal, 3-4 mm, 1-nerved, hyaline, midnerve scabrid above. Lemma 3-4 mm, faintly 5-nerved, scabrid above, subcoriaceous with very narrow hyaline margin; awn minute, 0.4-1 mm. Palea 2.5-3.5 mm, hyaline, keels minutely scabrid, interkeel papillose. Anthers 1-2.5 mm, purple or yellow. Caryopsis 1.4-2 × 0.6-0.7 mm.
N.: scattered throughout; S.: common in Canterbury, more scattered further south, rare in Nelson and not recorded from Marlborough; A., C. On grassy roadsides and in pasture, sometimes at swamp margins; lowland to subalpine.
Naturalised from Eurasia.
Now widespread in temperate regions in both Hemispheres.
