Common name
Common Barbgrass

Derivation
Hainardia Greuter, Boissiera 13: 178 (1967); named after P.Hainardi, phytogeographer and colleague of Greuter.

cylindrica- Inflorescences cylindrical.

Published in
Boissiera 13: 177 (1967).

Common synonyms
Monerma cylindica (Willd.) Coss & Dur.

Habit
Annual. Culms erect or geniculately ascending, 4–48 cm tall. Mid-culm nodes brown or black. Ligule an eciliate membrane, 0.2–0.6 mm long. Leaf-blades aciculate, involute, 3–16 cm long, 1.5–2.6 mm wide. Leaf-blade apex acuminate.

Inflorescence
Inflorescence solid, a spike, embraced at base by subtending leaf. Spikes 1, bilateral, 4–13.5 cm long. Racemes bilateral. Rhachis fragile at the nodes, subcylindrical and excavated. Spikelet packing adaxial. Raceme internodes linear or oblong, 3–7 mm long.

Spikelets
Spikelets sunken, solitary. Fertile spikelets 1-flowered, comprising 1 fertile floret, with a barren rhachilla extension, lanceolate, dorsally compressed, 4.3–7 mm long, falling entire, deciduous with accessory branch structures.

Glumes
Glume 1 (the lower absent or obscure), firmer than fertile lemma. Upper glume lanceolate, 4.3–7.2 mm long, 100–140% of length of adjacent fertile lemma, coriaceous, 3–5(–9)-nerved. Upper glume lateral nerves ribbed. Upper glume apex acuminate.

Florets
Fertile lemma lanceolate, dorsally compressed, 4.3–5.5 mm long, membranous, 3-nerved. Lemma lateral nerves less than two thirds length of lemma. Lemma surface puberulous. Lemma apex acuminate. Anthers 3, 1.6–3 mm long. Grain with adherent pericarp, ovoid. Embryo 20% of length of grain.

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

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

Western Australia: Drummond, Dale, Warren, Avon. South Australia: Lake Eyre, Northern Lofty, Murray, Yorke Peninsula, Southern Lofty, Kangaroo Island, South-eastern. New South Wales: North Coast, Central Coast, Southern Tablelands, North-Western Slopes, Central-Western Slopes, South-Western Slopes, North-Western Plains, South-Western Plains. Victoria: Murray Mallee, Wimmera, Wannon, Victorian Volcanic Plain, Otway Plain, Gippsland Plains, East Gippsland. Tasmania: Furneaux Group, Midlands, East Coast.

Classification. (GPWG 2001):
Pooideae: Poeae

Notes
Introduced. Native to the Mediterranean. Usually found on saline or gypsaceous soils associated with coastal vegetation. Flowers Oct.–Mar.