Common name
Alpine Grass

Derivation
Austrodanthonia H.P.Linder, Telopea 7: 269 (1997); from the Latin australis (southern), thus the southern Danthonias.

alpicola- from the Latin alpes (high mountain) and -cola (dweller). Growing on high mountains.

Published in
Telopea 7: 270 (1997).

Common synonyms
Danthonia semiannularis var. alpina Benth.
Danthonia alpicola Vickery
Rytidosperma alpicolum (Vickery) Connor & Edgar
Notodanthonia alpicola (Vickery) Veldkamp

Habit
Perennial, tufted. Young shoots intravaginal. Culms erect, 8–35 cm tall, 3–4-noded. Mid-culm nodes glabrous. Leaf-sheaths longer than adjacent culm internode. Ligule a fringe of hairs. Leaf-blades conduplicate or involute, 5–10 cm long, 2–4 mm wide, coriaceous, rigid.

Inflorescence
Inflorescence solid, a panicle, embraced at base by subtending leaf. Panicle contracted, lanceolate or ovate, 3–4 cm long, 2–2.5 cm wide. Panicle branches smooth or scabrous.

Spikelets
Spikelets solitary. Fertile spikelets many flowered, comprising 4–6 fertile florets, with diminished florets at the apex, cuneate, laterally compressed, 11–17 mm long, breaking up at maturity. Spikelets disarticulating below each fertile floret. Floret callus evident, pubescent.

Glumes
Glumes persistent, similar, thinner than fertile lemma. Lower glume lanceolate, 11–17 mm long, equalling upper glume, membranous, 5-nerved. Lower glume apex acute. Upper glume lanceolate, 12–17 mm long, 200% of length of adjacent fertile lemma, membranous, 5-nerved. Upper glume apex acute.

Florets
Fertile lemma oblong, 2.3–3 mm long, chartaceous, pallid, 9-nerved. Lemma surface with 2 transverse rows of hair tufts. Lemma margins ciliate. Lemma apex lobed, 2-fid, with lobes 3–5 mm long, incised 60% of lemma length, 3-awned. Median (principal) awn from a sinus, geniculate, 10–17 mm long overall, 10–13.7 mm long, with a twisted column. Column 2–3 mm long. Lateral lemma awns present, arising on apex of lobes. Palea lanceolate, 4–6.5 mm long. Palea keels ciliolate, adorned above. Palea surface pilose, hairy on flanks, hairy below. Palea apex emarginate or truncate. Apical sterile florets resembling fertile though underdeveloped. Lodicules 2, fleshy, ciliate. Anthers 3, 1.2–2.6 mm long, yellow. Grain with adherent pericarp, oblong, 1.7–2.2 mm long.

Continental Distribution:
Australasia.

Australian Distribution:
New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania.

New South Wales: Southern Tablelands. Victoria: Snowfields, East Gippsland. Tasmania: Furneaux Group.

Classification. (GPWG 2001):
Danthonioideae: Danthonieae

Notes
Native. Ranging from the A.C.T. through the Australian Alps, with an outlier on the Furneaux Islands, altitude 1800–2100 m (in Victoria down to 1600 m), rock crevices, ledges and alpine grassland. Flowers Dec. This species, with its thick leaves, large white basal sheaths, and compact inflorescence, is very distinctive.

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