Derivation
Aristida L., Sp. Pl. 1: 82 (1753); from the Latin arista (an awn).

cummingiana- named after Hugh Cuming (1791–1865), an English plant collector

Common synonyms
Aristida capillacea Cav.

Habit
Annual, culms solitary or tufted. Culms 8–30 cm tall. Mid-culm internodes glabrous. Lateral branches simple. Leaves cauline. Ligule a fringe of hairs, 0.2 mm long. Leaf-blades straight, conduplicate or involute or convolute, 2–7 cm long, 0.5–1 mm wide.

Inflorescence
Inflorescence compound, a panicle. Panicle open, elliptic, effuse, 3–8 cm long, 1.5–4 cm wide. Panicle branches capillary, with prominent pulvini.

Spikelets
Spikelets solitary. Fertile spikelets 1-flowered, comprising 1 fertile floret, without rhachilla extension, lanceolate, terete, 2–2.5 mm long, breaking up at maturity. Spikelets disarticulating below each fertile floret. Floret callus brief, pilose, obtuse.

Glumes
Glumes persistent, similar, thinner than fertile lemma. Lower glume lanceolate, 1.5–2 mm long, 70–80% length of upper glume, membranous, 1-keeled, 1-nerved, midnerve scaberulous. Lower glume lateral nerves absent. Lower glume surface glabrous. Lower glume apex acute or acuminate or cuspidate, mucronate. Upper glume lanceolate, 2–3 mm long, 130–150% of length of adjacent fertile lemma, membranous, 1-keeled, 1-nerved. Upper glume lateral nerves absent. Upper glume surface glabrous. Upper glume apex entire, acute, mucronate.

Florets
Fertile lemma elliptic, subterete, 1.5–1.8 mm long, coriaceous, 3-nerved. Lemma surface scaberulous or scabrous. Lemma margins convolute, covering most of palea. Lemma apex acute, 3-awned. Median (principal) awn 3-branched, 4.5–6 mm long, without a column, persistent. Lateral lemma awns present, 2.5–4 mm long, shorter than principal, 65% of length of principal. Palea 10% of length of lemma, without keels. Anthers 3. Grain terete, not grooved. Embryo 50–75% of length of grain.

Continental Distribution:
Africa, Temperate Asia, Tropical Asia, Australasia.

Australian Distribution:
Queensland: Cook.

Classification. (GPWG 2001):
Aristidoideae

Notes
Native. Restricted in Australia to the north-western tip of Cape York Peninsula: also in New Guinea and extending throughout south-east Asia to China, India and tropical Africa. Melaleuca communities on alluvial soil. Flowering and fruiting June and September. Aristida cumingiana has the smallest spikelets in Australian Aristida species with spikelets to 3 mm long. It is a delicate annual only recently collected in Australia for the first time and has an unusually widespread distribution for an Aristida species, extending from Australia to south-east Asia, China, India and tropical Africa.