Common name
Perennial Beardgrass

Derivation
Agropogon P.Fourn., Quatre Fl. France 50 ( 1934), a cross between Polypogon monspeliensis and Agrostis stolonifera, the name is derived from parts of the names of the parent genera, Agrostis and Polypogon.

littoralis- from the Latin lit(t)us (sea shore) and -ale (pertaining to).

Published in
Journ. Ecol. 33: 333 (1946).

Common synonyms
Polypogon littoralis Smith

Habit
Perennial, culms solitary or tufted, herbaceous. Basal leaf sheaths glabrous. Culms geniculately ascending or decumbent, slender, 8–70 cm tall. Mid-culm internodes smooth. Lateral branches sparsely branched, arising from lower culm or upper culm. Leaf-sheaths smooth. Ligule an eciliate membrane, 3–7 mm long, erose or lacerate, obtuse. Leaf-blades 3–20 cm long, 2–11 mm wide. Leaf-blade surface scaberulous or scabrous. Leaf-blade apex acuminate.

Inflorescence
Inflorescence compound, a panicle. Panicle contracted, lanceolate or oblong or ovate, continuous or interrupted, 2–18 cm long, 0.6–7 cm wide.

Spikelets
Spikelets solitary. Pedicels oblong. Fertile spikelets 1-flowered, comprising 1 fertile floret, without rhachilla extension, oblong, laterally compressed, 2–3 mm long, breaking up at maturity. Spikelets disarticulating below each fertile floret.

Glumes
Glumes persistent, similar, firmer than fertile lemma, gaping. Lower glume elliptic or oblong or ovate, 2–3 mm long, equalling upper glume, membranous, 1-keeled, 1-nerved. Lower glume lateral nerves absent. Lower glume surface asperulous or scabrous. Lower glume apex emarginate, awned. Lower glume awn subapical, 1–4 mm long. Upper glume elliptic or oblong or ovate, 2–3 mm long, 15–20% of length of adjacent fertile lemma, membranous, 1-keeled, 1-nerved. Upper glume lateral nerves absent. Upper glume surface asperulous or scabrous. Upper glume apex emarginate, awned. Upper glume awn subapical, 1–4 mm long.

Florets
Fertile lemma elliptic or oblong or obovate, 1–2 mm long, hyaline, 5-nerved. Lemma apex dentate, 4-fid, truncate, 1-awned. Median (principal) awn subapical, straight, 1–3 mm long overall. Palea oblong, 75% of length of lemma, hyaline, 2-nerved. Lodicules 2, lanceolate, membranous. Anthers 3, 1 mm long. Stigmas 2. Grain with adherent pericarp. Hilum linear.

Continental Distribution:
Europe, Temperate Asia, Tropical Asia, Australasia, North America, South America.

Australian Distribution:
New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania.

New South Wales: North Coast, Central Coast, Southern Tablelands. Victoria: Wannon, Riverina, Victorian Volcanic Plain, Gippsland Plains. Tasmania: East Coast.

Classification. (GPWG 2001):
Pooideae: Aveneae

Notes
Introduced. E coast of Tas., N coast, central coast and southern tablelands, N.S.W., Vic, and S.A. Native of Europe. Grows in wet disturbed areas. Flowers Dec.–Mar.

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