Avellinia

Scientific Name:

Avellinia michelii

Status:

Native to the Mediterranean.

Plant Description:

A small tufted annual grass to 30 cm high with flat or rolled, softly hairy, leaves, to 5 cm long and 2.5 mm wide. Flower-head is a contracted panicle of 1-8 cm long with 2-4 flowered spikelets. Outer glumes or bracts of the spikelets are very unequal in size; the lower only 1-2 mm long and the upper 3-6 mm long. The lemma (inner flower bract) is 3-4.5 mm long with a fine and straight awn or bristle, 1.5-2.5 mm long.

Habitat:

Occasional weed of sandy soils but sometimes common on seasonally wet freshwater and saline swamp and lake margins.

Comments:

Superficially similar to other small annual grasses with contracted panicles, such as Annual Cat’s-tail (Rostraria cristata) and Annual Fog (Holcus annuum) but differs in being rather ‘stiffer’ than soft in touch.

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