Austrodanthonia is a common genus of native perennial grasses.
Tasmania has 14 native species of this genus, which ranges up to the
alpine areas, but is more common at lower altitudes. It is often in
grassland and grassy woodland. Austrodanthonia is one of
the group of genera previously included in Danthonia. The
distinctive features of this group is that the have ciliate ligules, the base of the fruit
usually has
a callus of stiff hairs (often spreading, and becoming conspicuous
at the time of fruiting), and the body of the fruit often has tufts
of hairs. Danthonia (in its strict sense)
doesn't have awns, whereas the other genera do.
Notodanthonia
lack the tuft or row of hairs immediately above the base of the
fruit. Rytidosperma species are mostly alpine species with
distinctly small florets (lemmas only about 2mm long, with lobes
less than 5mm long). |