Chionochloa rubra subsp. rubra var. inermis

Detailed description

Tall, slender, reddish-green tussock with crowded, erect, stiff, rush-like leaves. Leaf-sheath to 300 mm, dark brown, keeled, incurving, remaining entire or fracturing into short segments, margin separating and coiling, apical tuft of hairs to 3 mm. Ligule to 1 mm. Leaf-blade to 1 m long and 1.2 mm diameter, greenish, acicular rush-like, splitting longitudinally, keel hollow, undersides glabrous but infrequently with long hairs near base, prickle-teeth towards apex, upper surface papillate; margin smooth. Culm to 1.5 m, internodes glabrous but sometimes long hairy, sheath glabrous. Inflorescence to 450 mm, open on pulvinate branches, glabrous except for long hairs at branch axils and short stiff hairs below spikelets, rarely becoming scabrid above. Spikelets of up to 9 florets. Glumes glabrous, acute, infrequently awned, less than or equal to adjacent lemma lobes, lower to 12 mm, 1–3–5-nerved, upper to 14 mm, 3–7-nerved. Lemma to 6 mm; hairs dense on margin, usually absent or sparse elsewhere, < sinus; lateral lobes to 6 mm including awn to 3 mm, rarely unawned; central awn to 13 mm from twisting column to 3 mm. Palea to 8 mm. Callus to 1.5 mm, hairs to 4 mm. Rachilla to 0.75 mm. Lodicules to 1 mm. Anthers to 5 mm. Ovary to 1 mm; stigma-styles to 4 mm. Seeds to 3.5 mm.