Common name
Wiry Panic

Derivation
Entolasia Stapf, in D.Prain, Fl. Trop. Afr. 9: 739 (1920), from the Greek entos (within) and lasios (hairy). Fertile lemma hairy.

stricta- Latin for erect. Inflorescence branches erect.

Published in
Bull. Misc. Inform. 331 (1923).

Habit
Perennial, tufted. Rhizomes short. Basal leaf sheaths pilose. Culms geniculately ascending or decumbent or sprawling, 20–80(–120) cm tall, wiry, 4–10-noded, without nodal roots or rooting from lower nodes. Mid-culm internodes scaberulous, glabrous or hirsute, with tubercle-based hairs. Leaf-sheaths glabrous on surface or hairy. Ligule a fringe of hairs, 0.2–0.6 mm long. Leaf-blades disarticulating from the sheaths, involute, 0.5–10 cm long, 1–7 mm wide, rigid. Leaf-blade midrib indistinct. Leaf-blade surface scaberulous or scabrous, glabrous or hirsute, with tubercle-based hairs. Leaf-blade margins cartilaginous. Leaf-blade apex attenuate, hardened.

Inflorescence
Inflorescence compound, a panicle of racemes. Racemes 2–9, erect, unilateral, 2–7 cm long, bearing 2–10 fertile spikelets on each (secondary), simple or secondarily branched. Central inflorescence axis 2–10 cm long. Rhachis angular, scaberulous on margins. Spikelet packing adaxial, regular, 2-rowed.

Spikelets
Spikelets solitary. Pedicels linear, flattened, 0.5–1.5 mm long. Fertile spikelets 2-flowered, comprising 1 fertile floret, lower floret sterile, upper fertile, without rhachilla extension, elliptic or oblanceolate, dorsally compressed, obtuse or subacute, 2.25–3.7 mm long, 0.9–1.4 mm wide, falling entire.

Glumes
Glumes dissimilar, thinner than fertile lemma. Lower glume ovate, 0.4–1.3 mm long, 25–33% of length of spikelet, membranous, 0–1-nerved. Lower glume lateral nerves absent. Lower glume apex acute or acuminate. Upper glume elliptic, 2.25–3.6 mm long, 100% of length of adjacent fertile lemma, 100% of length of spikelet, herbaceous, 5-nerved. Upper glume surface smooth or asperulous, rough on nerves. Upper glume apex acute, mucronate.

Florets
Basal sterile floret 1, without significant palea. Lemma of lower sterile floret similar to upper glume, elliptic, 2.25–3.6 mm long, 100% of length of spikelet, herbaceous, 5-nerved, smooth or scaberulous, rough on nerves, acute. Fertile lemma elliptic, dorsally compressed, 2.25–3.5 mm long, coriaceous, 5-nerved. Lemma lateral nerves obscure. Lemma surface pubescent. Lemma margins involute. Lemma apex obtuse or acute. Palea involute, coriaceous, 2-nerved. Palea surface pubescent. Anthers 0.8–1.1 mm long.

Continental Distribution:
Tropical Asia, Australasia.

Australian Distribution:
Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria.

Queensland: Cook, North Kennedy, South Kennedy, Port Curtis, Leichhardt, Burnett, Wide Bay, Darling Downs, Moreton. New South Wales: North Coast, Central Coast, South Coast, Northern Tablelands, Central Tablelands, Southern Tablelands, North-Western Slopes, Central-Western Slopes. Victoria: Gippsland Plains, East Gippsland.

Classification. (GPWG 2001):
Panicoideae: Paniceae

Notes
Native. Occurs in forested areas of eastern Australia and extends into New Guinea. Flowers throughout the year.

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