Isachne sharpii B.K.Simon

Simon, B.K. (2010) Austrobaileya 8(2): 206-209. Type: Queensland. Cook District: Palm Road, Cape Tribulation, 21 April 2001, D.Sharp 293.

Creeping grass, leaves distichous.

Leaf blades ca. 2.6-5.5 x 0.7-1.3 cm. Petioles (free part) 0-2 mm long. Margins of leaf sheath ciliate. Ligule ciliate. Some leaves hairy on both surfaces, especially the upper surface. Some leaves glabrous. Sheath ca. 8-15 mm long.

Panicles terminal, sparsely branched, few spikelets. Each spikelet has 2 florets, one bisexual and one female. Glumea ca. 3 mm long, minutely hairy. Florets face each other with a flat surface. Lemma ca. 2 x 1 mm, concave, no awn. Palea <2 x 1 mm, slightly smaller than lemma. Stamens 3, ca. 1.25 mm long, filaments ca 0.5 mm long. Ovary green with transluicent lodicules, ca. 0.5 mm long, fleshy. Style and stigma ca. 1 mm long. Stigma purple, plumose.

Fruit ca. 2 mm long, flat on one side. Endosperm white, granular. Embryo opaque, more or less globular, <0.25 mm diam.

Known only from a small area near Cape Tribulation in NEQ. Altitudinal range near sea level. Grows in Licuala swamp forest and rainforest in damp soil or in shallow water.