Plants of
South Australia
Deyeuxia densa
Poaceae
Heath Bent-grass
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Adelaide
Arkaroola
Ceduna
Coober Pedy
Hawker
Innamincka
Marla
Marree
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Oodnadatta
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Wudinna
Keith
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Prior names

Calamagrostis densa

Etymology

Deyeuxia named after Nicolas Deyeux (1753-1837), a Professor at the School of Pharmacy and Faculty of Medicine, Paris. Densa from the Latin 'densus' meaning dense, referring to panicle with many spikelets.

Distribution and status

Found on Kangaroo Island, southern Mount Lofty Ranges and the lower-South-east growing in heaths, sedgelands and on stream banks in damp, open to lightly shaded sites. Also found in Victoria and Tasmania. Native. Rare in South Australia. Rare in Tasmania. Common in Victoria.
Herbarium regions: Southern Lofty, Kangaroo Island, South Eastern, Green Adelaide
NRM regions: Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges, Kangaroo Island, South East
AVH map: SA distribution map (external link)

Plant description

Tufted or shortly rhizomatous perennial grass with erect culms to 80 cm high. Leaves glabrous to shortly hairy with leaf blade usually finely scabrous, flat or inrolled, to 30 cm long and 6 mm wide, ligule obtuse, often toothed. Inflorescence a dense to rather loose, cylindric or slightly spreading panicle, to 20 cm long with green or slightly purplish spikelets. Glumes subequal, acuminate, keeled, scabrous along the keel. Lemma three-quarters to nearly as long as spikelet, narrowly tapered toward apex, densely scabrous, awned from the middle or slightly above usually longer than lemma, twisted in lower part. Callus hairs to 1 mm long. Rachilla bristle plumose, about half as long as lemma. Flowering between October and January. Fruits are pale brown, long and dense spike. Seeds are yellow-brown grain. Seed embryo type is lateral.

Seed collection and propagation

Collect seeds between November and March. Use hands to gently strip seeds off the mature seed spike that are turning straw colour. Mature seeds will come off easily. Alternatively, you can break off the whole seed spike. Place the seeds/spike in a tray and leave to dry for two weeks. No further cleaning is required if only seed collected. If seed spikes collected, use hand to strip off the mature seeds. Store the seeds with a desiccant such as dried silica beads or dry rice, in an air tight container in a cool and dry place. Seed viability is usually high.

Seeds stored:
  Hide
LocationNo. of seeds
(weight grams)
Number
of plants
Date
collected
Collection number
Collection location
Date
stored
% ViabilityStorage
temperature
 
MSB

9,000 (3.16 g)
3013-Jan-2007RJB71043
Southern Lofty
BGA1,800 (0.37 g)3021-Dec-2007RJB76459
South Eastern
19-Sep-2008100%-18°C
Location: BGA — the seeds are stored at the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, MSB — the seeds are stored at the Millennium Seed Bank, Kew, England.
Number of plants: This is the number of plants from which the seeds were collected.
Collection location: The Herbarium of South Australia's region name.
% Viability: Percentage of filled healthy seeds determined by a cut test or x-ray.