Flora of New Zealand Series

lesser canary grass

Tufted annuals 10-100 cm, very slender to robust. Leaf-sheath firm, minutely scabrid or smooth, striate, light green sometimes purplish; upper sheaths slightly inflated. Ligule 2-6.5 mm, obtuse, slightly tapered. Leaf-blade 3-30 cm × 2-10 mm, long-tapered, finely ribbed, ribs finely scabrid especially near finely scabrid margins, tip acuminate. Culm 8-95 cm, internodes ridged. Panicle 1.5-6.5 × 1-2 cm, ovoid-oblong to cylindric; rachis and branches hidden, papillose, scabrid, sometimes only sparsely so. Spikelets 4.5-5.5 mm, light green. Glumes ± equal, 3-nerved, smooth, oblanceolate with sharply acute tip, keel finely scabrid, winged in upper ½, wing usually toothed near abruptly narrowed apex. Ø florets: lemmas very unequal, lower c. 0.3 mm, a glabrous shining minute scale, upper 0.9-1.3 mm, lanceolate, acute, hairy. ⚥ floret: lemma 2.5-3 mm, ovate, acute, silky-haired; palea narrower than lemma, internerve long hairy or occasionally almost glabrous, apex ciliate; anthers 1-2 mm; caryopsis 2-2.3 × 0.8-1.2 mm.

N.: scattered; S.: scattered to east of Main Divide, usually near coast; K., Ch. Waste ground, roadsides, poor pasture, shingle and ballast.

Naturalised from Mediterranean.

Now naturalised and widespread throughout temperate regions of both Hemispheres.