Common name
Slender 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.

tenella- from the Latin word for slender. Culms or inflorescence branches slender.

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

Habit
Annual or perennial, tufted. Stolons absent or present. Basal leaf sheaths glabrous. Culms erect or geniculately ascending or decumbent, 20–60 cm tall, without nodal roots or rooting from lower nodes. Ligule a fringed membrane, 0.5 mm long. Leaf-blades 5–10 cm long, 1–2 mm wide. Leaf-blade apex acuminate.

Inflorescence
Inflorescence digitate, with spicate branches. Spikes 3–6, unilateral, 4–9 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, elliptic or oblong or obovate, laterally compressed, compressed strongly, 1.5–2.5 mm long, breaking up at maturity. Spikelets disarticulating below each fertile floret.

Glumes
Glumes deciduous, similar, with lower wider than upper, similar to fertile lemma in texture, parallel to lemmas. Lower glume oblong, 1.5–2.5 mm long, 100% length of upper glume, membranous, 1-keeled, wingless, 1-nerved, midnerve scaberulous. Lower glume lateral nerves absent. Lower glume apex obtuse or acute. Upper glume oblong, 1.5–2.5 mm long, 200% of length of adjacent fertile lemma, membranous, 1-keeled, wingless, 1-nerved, midnerve scaberulous. Upper glume lateral nerves absent. Upper glume apex obtuse or acute.

Florets
Fertile lemma ovate, laterally compressed, 1.2–1.5 mm long, membranous, 3-nerved. Lemma midnerve pubescent. Lemma margins pubescent. Lemma apex obtuse, muticous. Palea 2-nerved. Palea keels approximate, pubescent. Anthers 3, 0.3 mm long. Grain with adherent pericarp, ellipsoid or obovoid, 1 mm long. Embryo 50% of length of grain.

Continental Distribution:
Tropical Asia, Australasia.

Australian Distribution:
Western Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland.

Western Australia: Gardner, Fortescue. Northern Territory: Darwin & Gulf, Victoria River, Barkly Tableland. Queensland: Cook, Burke, North Kennedy, South Kennedy, Port Curtis, Leichhardt, Mitchell.

Classification. (GPWG 2001):
Chloridoideae: Cynodonteae

Notes
Endemic; from the W.A. Kimberley region across the northern half of the N.T. to Normanton in Qld, and in the eastern half of Qld in the drier inland regions; flowers Jan.–Mar. in the Kimberley.

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