Common name
Hairy Native Couch

Derivation
Brachyachne (Benth.) Stapf, in D.Prain (ed.), Fl. Trop. Africa 9: 20 (1917) in clavis; from the Greek brachys (short) and achne (scale, chaff), alluding to lemmas shorter than glumes.

ciliaris- from the Latin words cilium (eyelid) and -are (pertaining to). Glumes or lemmas ciliate on nerves or margins.

Published in
Bull. Misc. Inform. 448 (1934).

Habit
Annual, tufted. Basal leaf sheaths villous. Culms geniculately ascending or decumbent, 5–25 cm tall. Leaf-sheaths pilose, with tubercle-based hairs. Ligule a fringed membrane, 0.6–1 mm long. Leaf-blades 1–3 cm long, 1–2 mm wide. Leaf-blade surface pilose, with tubercle-based hairs. Leaf-blade apex obtuse or acute.

Inflorescence
Inflorescence digitate, with spicate branches. Spikes 2–4, unilateral, 3–6 cm long. Rhachis flattened. Spikelet packing broadside to rhachis, imbricate, regular, 2-rowed.

Spikelets
Spikelets appressed, solitary. Fertile spikelets 1-flowered, comprising 1 fertile floret, without rhachilla extension, lanceolate or oblong, laterally compressed, compressed strongly, 3–4 mm long, breaking up at maturity. Spikelets disarticulating below each fertile floret.

Glumes
Glumes deciduous, similar, with lower wider than upper, firmer than fertile lemma, parallel to lemmas. Lower glume oblong, 3–4 mm long, 100% length of upper glume, coriaceous, 1-nerved. Lower glume lateral nerves absent. Lower glume surface grooved on either side of midnerve. Lower glume apex obtuse. Upper glume oblong, 3–4 mm long, 150% of length of adjacent fertile lemma, coriaceous, 1-keeled, 1-nerved. Upper glume lateral nerves absent. Upper glume apex obtuse.

Florets
Fertile lemma ovate, laterally compressed, 2–2.6 mm long, membranous, 3-nerved. Lemma surface pubescent, with a transverse fringe of hair. Lemma margins ciliate. Lemma apex obtuse, mucronate. Palea 2-nerved. Palea keels ciliate, adorned in the middle. Grain with adherent pericarp, obovoid, laterally compressed, 1–1.5 mm long, pitted. Embryo 50–75% of length of grain.

Continental Distribution:
Australasia.

Australian Distribution:
Northern Territory, South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales.

Northern Territory: Central Australia North, Central Australia South. South Australia: Lake Eyre, Gairdner-Torrens Basin. Queensland: Burke, South Kennedy, Gregory North, Gregory South, Mitchell, Warrego. New South Wales: North Far Western Plains, South Far Western Plains.

Classification. (GPWG 2001):
Chloridoideae: Cynodonteae

Notes
Endemic; occurs in the arid and low rainfall areas of inland Australia from Alice Springs E across the L. Eyre basin between 20°S and 31°S, and within 300 km of the Qld coast around the Tropic of Capricorn; Usually on sandy, gravelly or stony slopes or plains, including gibber plains.

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