Common name
Avellinia

Derivation
Avellinia Parl., Pl. Nov. 59 (1842); after Giulio Avellino, a Neapolitan botanist.

michelii- in honour of Pier Antonio Micheli (1679–1737), Italian botanist.

Published in
Pl. Nov. 61 (1842).

Habit
Annual. Culms erect or geniculately ascending, slender, 6–30 cm tall. Mid-culm internodes pubescent. Leaf-sheaths pubescent. Ligule an eciliate membrane, 0.4–1 mm long, truncate. Leaf-blades 10–20(–50) cm long, 0.6–1 mm wide. Leaf-blade surface puberulous or pilose. Leaf-blade apex obtuse.

Inflorescence
Inflorescence compound, a panicle. Panicle contracted, lanceolate, 2–7 cm long.

Spikelets
Spikelets solitary. Fertile spikelets many flowered, comprising 2–4 fertile florets, with a barren rhachilla extension, oblong or cuneate, laterally compressed, 3–5.1 mm long, breaking up at maturity. Spikelets disarticulating below each fertile floret. Rhachilla internodes definite, pubescent. Floret callus glabrous.

Glumes
Glumes persistent, dissimilar, shiny, gaping. Lower glume linear, 0.7–1.3 mm long, 25% length of upper glume, membranous, 1-keeled, 1-nerved. Lower glume lateral nerves absent. Lower glume apex acute. Upper glume elliptic, 3–5.1 mm long, equalling adjacent fertile lemma, membranous, 1-keeled, 3-nerved, midnerve scaberulous. Upper glume apex acute.

Florets
Fertile lemma linear, 3–5 mm long, membranous, 3–5-nerved. Lemma lateral nerves obscure. Lemma apex entire or dentate, 2-fid, 1-awned. Median (principal) awn from a sinus, straight, 1–2 mm long overall. Palea gaping, 50% of length of lemma, hyaline. Lodicules 2, membranous. Anthers 3, 0.4–0.5 mm long. Ovary glabrous. Grain with adherent pericarp. Hilum punctiform.

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

Australian Distribution:
Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria.

Western Australia: Eucla, Irwin, Drummond, Dale, Menzies, Warren, Eyre. South Australia: Flinders Ranges, Eyre Peninsula, Northern Lofty, Murray, Yorke Peninsula, Southern Lofty, Kangaroo Island, South-eastern. Victoria: Murray Mallee, Lowan Mallee, Wimmera, Wannon, Grampians, Midlands, Victorian Volcanic Plain, Otway Range, Eastern Highlands, Gippsland Plains, Wilsons Promontory.

Classification. (GPWG 2001):
Pooideae: Aveneae

Notes
Occasional weed of sandy soils; dry sites, on sand in heath, mallee and dunes. Flowers Sept.–Nov.