Common name
Slender Rat's Tail Grass
Jilgrubari
Slender Parramatta Grass

Derivation
Sporobolus R.Br., Prodr. 169 (1810); from the Greek spora (seed) and bolos (throwing), alluding to the free seed and (presumably) the sometimes forcible manner of its release.

elongatus- inflorescence elongated.

Published in
Prodr. 170 (1810).

Habit
Perennial, tufted. Basal leaf sheaths herbaceous. Culms erect, 50–100 cm tall, 3–4-noded. Mid-culm nodes glabrous. Lateral branches simple. Leaves mostly basal. Leaf-sheaths glabrous on surface. Ligule a fringed membrane or a fringe of hairs, 0.5 mm long. Leaf-blades linear, flat or conduplicate or convolute, 4–50 cm long, 1–3 mm wide.

Inflorescence
Inflorescence compound, a panicle. Panicle contracted, linear, 10–30 cm long, contracted about primary branches. Primary panicle branches appressed or spreading, distant, 0.5–1 cm long, bearing spikelets almost to the base. Panicle branches glabrous in axils.

Spikelets
Spikelets solitary. Pedicels 1 mm long. Fertile spikelets 1-flowered, comprising 1 fertile floret, without rhachilla extension, lanceolate, terete, 1.5–2.3 mm long, breaking up at maturity. Spikelets disarticulating below each fertile floret.

Glumes
Glumes deciduous, similar, thinner than fertile lemma. Lower glume lanceolate or oblong, 0.3–1 mm long, 50% length of upper glume, hyaline, 0–1-nerved. Lower glume lateral nerves absent. Lower glume apex obtuse. Upper glume lanceolate or oblong, 0.7–1.4 mm long, 50–66% of length of adjacent fertile lemma, hyaline, 0-nerved. Upper glume apex obtuse.

Florets
Fertile lemma lanceolate or oblong, 1.3–2.2 mm long, membranous, 1–3-nerved. Lemma apex acute. Palea 1.5 mm long, 75% of length of lemma, 2-nerved. Palea keels approximate. Palea apex entire, acute. Anthers 2, 0.5–0.6 mm long. Grain with free soft pericarp, obovoid, quadrangular, 0.5–1 mm long.

Continental Distribution:
Tropical Asia, Australasia, Pacific.

Australian Distribution:
Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales.

Western Australia: Drummond, Menzies. South Australia: Lake Eyre, Nullabor. Queensland: Cook, Burke, North Kennedy, South Kennedy, Port Curtis, Leichhardt, Burnett, Wide Bay, Darling Downs, Moreton. New South Wales: North Coast, Central Coast, South Coast, Northern Tablelands, Central Tablelands, North-Western Slopes, Central-Western Slopes, North-Western Plains, South-Western Plains.

Classification. (GPWG 2001):
Chloridoideae: Cynodonteae

Notes
Endemic; found mainly along or near eastern coast and a few other scattered localities; New Guinea and the Pacific region. A fairly widespread native taxon in woodland and native grassland. It can also become weedy; flowers all year.