Common name
Common wheatgrass
Rough Wheatgrass

Derivation
Elymus L., Sp. Pl. 83 (1753); from the Greek Elumos, old Greek name for a kind of grain.

scaber- Latin for rough or gritty to the touch. Plants with rough leaf-blades, spikelets or stems.

Published in
Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 95: 468(1984).

Common synonyms
Agropyron scabrum (R.Br.) P.Beauv.
Agropyron scabrum (R.Br.) P.Beauv. var. plurinerve Vickery

Habit
Perennial, tufted. Basal leaf sheaths persistent and investing base of culm, with fibrous dead sheaths. Culms erect or arching, 13.5–120 cm tall. Mid-culm internodes smooth or antrorsely scabrous. Mid-culm nodes glabrous. Leaves mostly basal. Leaf-sheath auricles present. Leaf-sheath auricles 0–1.8 mm long. Ligule an eciliate membrane, 0.2–0.9 mm long, hyaline or membranous, truncate. Leaf-blades flat or involute, 5–40 cm long, 1.8–6.9 mm wide, glaucous. Leaf-blade margins scabrous.

Inflorescence
Inflorescence solid, a raceme. Raceme 1, bilateral, 15–25 cm long, bearing few fertile spikelets, bearing (1–)3–10(–13) fertile spikelets on each. Rhachis flattened. Spikelet packing broadside to rhachis, distant.

Spikelets
Spikelets solitary. Fertile spikelets many flowered, comprising 2–20 fertile florets, with diminished florets at the apex, oblong, laterally compressed, 25–35 mm long, breaking up at maturity. Spikelets disarticulating below each fertile floret.

Glumes
Glumes persistent, similar. Lower glume subulate or oblong or ovate, 1.3–12 mm long, 66–80% length of upper glume, chartaceous or coriaceous, (2–)3–5(–6)-nerved. Lower glume lateral nerves ribbed. Lower glume apex acute, muticous or awned. Upper glume oblong, 12 mm long, equalling adjacent fertile lemma, coriaceous, 5–7-nerved. Upper glume lateral nerves ribbed. Upper glume apex acute.

Florets
Fertile lemma elliptic or ovate, narrowly proportioned, 7–24.5 mm long, coriaceous, keeled above, 5(–7)-nerved. Lemma apex acute, 1-awned. Median (principal) awn straight or curved, recurved at base of limb, 9–47 mm long overall. Palea 90% of length of lemma, 2-keeled. Palea keels scabrous. Apical sterile florets resembling fertile though underdeveloped. Lodicules 2, elliptic, membranous. Anthers 3, 0.5–3 mm long. Stigmas 2. Ovary pubescent on apex. Grain with adherent pericarp.

Continental Distribution:
Australasia.

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

Western Australia: Drummond, Dale, Menzies, Warren, Eyre, Roe, Avon, Coolgardie. South Australia: Nullabor, Gairdner-Torrens Basin, Flinders Ranges, Eastern, Eyre Peninsula, Northern Lofty, Murray, Yorke Peninsula, Southern Lofty, Kangaroo Island, South-eastern. Queensland: Port Curtis, Burnett, Darling Downs. New South Wales: North Coast, Central Coast, South Coast, Northern Tablelands, Central Tablelands, Southern Tablelands, North-Western Slopes, Central-Western Slopes, South-Western Slopes, North-Western Plains, South-Western Plains, North Far Western Plains, South Far Western Plains. Victoria: Murray Mallee, Lowan Mallee, Wimmera, Wannon, Grampians, Riverina, Midlands, Victorian Volcanic Plain, Otway Plain, Otway Range, Eastern Highlands, Gippsland Plains, Gippsland Highlands, Wilsons Promontory, Snowfields, East Gippsland. Tasmania: Furneaux Group, North West, West Coast, Central Highlands, Midlands, Ben Lomond, East Coast.

Classification. (GPWG 2001):
Pooideae: Triticeae

Notes
Native. Found thoughout Australia except N.T. Also in New Zealand. There are two varieties.

Elymus scaber (R.Br.) A.Löve var. scaber
Characters of callus (e.g., densely hairy, tip thickened) are distinct in specimens from Tas. and Vic. but not so distinct in specimens from other areas.
Found in N.S.W., Vic., S.A., W.A., and Tas. Also in New Zealand.

Elymus scaber var. plurinervis (Vickery) B.K.Simon
Found in south-eastern Qld and in north-eastern N.S.W.

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