Plants of
South Australia
Tetrarrhena juncea
Poaceae
Forest Wire-grass
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Regional Species Conservation Assessments per IBRA subregion.
Least concern
Near threatened
Rare
Vulnerable
Endangered
Critically endangered
Extinct
Data deficient
Adelaide
Arkaroola
Ceduna
Coober Pedy
Hawker
Innamincka
Marla
Marree
Mount Gambier
Oodnadatta
Renmark
Wudinna
Keith
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Etymology

Tetrarrhena from the Greek 'tetra' meaning four and 'arrhen' meaning male, referring to the 4 anthers which is unusual in the Poaceae. Juncea from Latin meaning rush-like) leaf-blades curled longitudinally to resemble certain Juncus species

Distribution and status

Found only in the southern Mount Lofty Ranges in South Australia, growing in wet open forest. Also found in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania. Native. Very rare in South Australia. Rare in Queensland and Tasmania. Common in the other states.
Herbarium region: Southern Lofty
NRM region: Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges
AVH map: SA distribution map (external link)

Plant description

Rhizomatous perennial grass with much-branched wiry stems often scrambling to 4 m. Leaves spreading, distant or lacking from lower stems, scabrous, glabrous or shortly hairy about the ligule. Leaf blade flat or nearly so, to 80 mm long and 5 mm wide, ligule ciliate, to 0.3 mm long, sometimes with marginal hair-tufts. Inflorescence a spike-like raceme to 7 cm long, often purplish in colour. Glumes subequal, 1.6�3.5 mm long, smooth and glabrous. Lemmas glabrous, obscurely 5�7-nerved, lower sterile lemma about two-thirds length of spikelet, obtuse, hardly keeled, upper sterile lemma and fertile lemma similar, obtuse, keeled. Palea slightly shorter than fertile lemma, often purplish. Flowering between October and January. Fruits are short pale brown spike. Seed embryo type is lateral.

Seed collection and propagation

Collect seeds between January and November. 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.

Seeds stored:
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LocationNo. of seeds
(weight grams)
Number
of plants
Date
collected
Collection number
Collection location
Date
stored
% ViabilityStorage
temperature
BGA1,900 (2.8 g)5025-Jan-2018DJD3738
South Eastern
30-Jun-20180%-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.