''Rytidosperma erianthum'', the hill wallaby grass, is a perennial species of grass found in south eastern

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. Usually found in drier areas in a variety of habitats. The habit is somewhat variable, erect and densely tufted. The grass may grow up to tall.

Description

''Rytidosperma erianthum'' is an erect, densely tufted perennial up to high. Stem bearing the inflorescence, or culm, is smooth, 3-noded. Leaves generally with soft hairs with a small wart-like outgrowth (

tubercle In anatomy, a tubercle (literally 'small tuber', Latin for 'lump') is any round nodule, small eminence, or warty outgrowth found on external or internal organs of a plant or an animal. In plants A tubercle is generally a wart-like projectio ...

) at the base of hairs. Leaf blade fine, rolled in, or rarely almost flat, to long and usually less than wide. Compound

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

(

panicle In botany, a panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a p ...

) which is

ovate Ovate may refer to: * Ovate (egg-shaped) leaves, tepals, or other botanical parts *Ovate, a type of prehistoric stone hand axe * Ovates, one of three ranks of membership in the Welsh Gorsedd * Vates or ovate, a term for ancient Celtic bards ...

in shape, compact or loose, to long. Inflorescence has 4 to 15 spikelets, which are each flower together with lemma and palea that enclose it. Spikelets green-tinged with purple and are 4–8-flowered, to long.

Glumes In botany, a glume is a bract (leaf-like structure) below a spikelet in the inflorescence (flower cluster) of grasses (Poaceae) or the flowers of sedges (Cyperaceae). There are two other types of bracts in the spikelets of grasses: the lemma an ...

(bracts at the base of the grass spikelet) subequal, tapering gradually to a point, to long. Lemma rather broad, to long, with 2 rows of hairs, the lower about above the hardened extension from the base of a floret (

callus A callus (: calluses) is an area of thickened and sometimes hardened skin that forms as a response to repeated friction, pressure, or other irritation. Since repeated contact is required, calluses are most often found on the feet and hands, b ...

) tuft, and virtually reaching the dense upper ring, the hairs of which normally exceed the twisted part of the central awn. Lateral lobes erect or slightly spreading, to long, abruptly tapering into fine hairs which are about as long as or longer than the flat part. Central awn exceeding lateral lobes by to . Palea

obovate The following terms are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (that is, the leaf blade or 'lamina' is undivided) or compound (that is, the leaf blade is divided into two or more leaflets) ...

in shape, the margin with conspicuous hairs, exceeding sinus by about . Flowers occur from September to December.

Taxonomy

''Rytidosperma erianthum'' was first described by the botanist

John Lindley John Lindley Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (5 February 1799 – 1 November 1865) was an English botanist, gardener and orchidology, orchidologist. Early years Born in Old Catton, Catton, near Norwich, England, John Lindley was one of four c ...

as ''Danthonia eriantha'' in 1838. The

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

was collected by Major Mitchell, during his expedition of 1836 in present-day southern

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

. Based on expedition maps, the collection likely occurred near The Rock. Major Mitchell described the species as "a new kind of grass with large seeds". In 1841, French botanists Brongniart and Guillemin mistakenly named ''Danthonia eriantha'' as ''Danthonia periantha'' (

orthographical variant In biology, within the science of Nomenclature, scientific nomenclature, i.e. the naming of organisms, an orthographical variant (abbreviated orth. var.) in botany or an orthographic error in zoology, is a spelling mistake, typing mistake or writi ...

). New Zealand botanists Connor and

Edgar Edgar is a commonly used masculine English given name, from an Anglo-Saxon name ''Edgar'' (composed of ''wikt:en:ead, ead'' "rich, prosperous" and ''Gar (spear), gar'' "spear"). Like most Anglo-Saxon names, it fell out of use by the Late Midd ...

placed ''Danthonia eriantha'' into the genus ''Rytidosperma'' as ''Rytidosperma erianthum'' in 1979. Further changes were put forward by botanists including, Veldkamp in 1980 proposing a new combination ''Notodanthonia eriantha'', and in 1997 Linder proposing the new combination ''Austrodanthonia eriantha''. However, ''Rytidosperma erianthum'' is the current accepted name.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15521162 erianthum Poales of Australia