Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Isachne confusa Ohwi


Grass
Click/tap on images to enlarge
Inflorescence. © Australian Plant Image Index (APII). Photographer: M. Fagg.
Herbarium specimen. © MBA
Family

Ohwi, J. (1947) Bulletin of the National Science Museum, Tokyo 18: 14. Type: Sumatra (Ins. Bangka, Bunnemeijer, 1577 in Herb. Bogor).

Stem

Perennial with stiffly erect to decumbent culms, 35-45 cm tall, branched, nodes widely spaced and glabrous.

Leaves

Leaf sheaths 3-5 mm long, much shorter than the internodes and shorter than the blade, slightly inflated, with long tubercle-based hairs; leaf blades lanceolate-ovate, thick, tough, 1-2.5 × 0.3-0.7 cm, glaucous, many veined, riblike, abaxial surface minutely papillose, adaxial surface scabrid or hispidulous on the veins, margins pectinate-setose; ligule absent.

Flowers

Inflorescence an open broadly pyramidal panicle, 1.5-4 cm, glandular; branches stiff with thickened bases, horizontally spreading, close-set and smooth; pedicels stout, shorter than or equaling spikelets. Spikelets solitary, globose, 1.2-1.3 mm, brownish green; florets similar; glumes shorter than florets, thickly membranous with broad scarious margins, lower glume 3-veined, upper glume 5-veined, densely hispid with thick hairs, apex rounded, deciduous; lemmas strongly plano-convex and leathery, back minutely white-granular, margins scurfy-pubescent, lower lemma very slightly longer and narrower.

Fruit

Seeds of florets born tight so that it looks like 2 seeds per floret. Caryopsis with adherent pericarp, smooth and flattened on one side.

Seedlings

Features not available.

Distribution and Ecology

Occurs in the NT, CYP and NEQ. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 210 m. Grows along creeks and marshy areas in closed forest margins, open forest, Melaleuca swamp forest and in heathland. Prefers sandy soils. Also from China, India (Nicobar Islands), Indonesia, Malesia, Thailand, Vietnam and New Guinea.

RFK Code
4263
Copyright © CSIRO 2020, all rights reserved.