Species profile—Paspalidium grandispiculatum
Classification
Plantae (plants) → Equisetopsida (land plants) → Poaceae (grass) → Paspalidium grandispiculatum
Sighting data
Species details
- Kingdom
- Plantae (plants)
- Class
- Equisetopsida (land plants)
- Family
- Poaceae (grass)
- Scientific name
- Paspalidium grandispiculatum B.K.Simon
- WildNet taxon ID
- 10258
- Nature Conservation Act 1992 (NCA) status
- Vulnerable
- Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC) status
- Vulnerable
- Conservation significant
- Yes
- Confidential
- No
- Endemicity
- Native
- Pest status
- Nil
- Short Notes
- BRI 255048 (Holotype), 290863 (Isotype), status annotated by author
- Description
- Paspalidium grandispiculatum is a perennial grass growing to 1.5 m tall with robust woody rhizomes. The culms are woody, smooth, glaucous to pruinose on exposed sections, with 7 to 9 nodes. There are branches at some nodes and throughout the culm length. The leaf sheaths are glabrous and smooth. The ligule has a ciliate fringe, with cilia to 1 mm long, The leaf blades are linear, growing to 10 cm long by 4 mm wide, scabrous on the nerves particularly on the underside. The inflorescences occur in racemes up to 16 cm long. Spikelets are irregularly gathered at the stems, 3.5 to 4.5 mm long and have two flowers. Each spikelet is accompanied by a scabrous bristle 3 to 4 mm long arising from the stalk beneath the spikelet.
Paspalidium grandispiculatum is distinguished from all other Australian species of Paspalidium by its large spikelets and characteristic woody culms arising from the robust woody rhizomes. Most other species of Paspalidium possess contracted rootstocks and sometimes contracted rhizomes but not the elongated rhizomes of P. grandispiculatum (Simon, 1982; Stanley, 1989). - Map
- View Map
- Distribution
- Paspalidium grandispiculatum is confined to south-east Queensland. The most northern distribution of the species occurs west of Kingaroy. Other locations include Tarong State Forest, Mt Binga State Forest, Crows Nest Falls National Park, White Mountain State Forest and Lockyer National Park. The most southern population occurs near Beaudesert in native pasture (Queensland Herbarium, 2012).
- Distributional limits
- -26.5406368, 151.8767197
-27.915068, 153.0843987 - Range derivation
- Range derived from extent of the taxon's verified records
- Habitat
- Paspalidium grandispiculatum has been recorded growing: in tall woodland with associated species including Eucalyptus fibrosa subsp. fibrosa, E. major, E. longirostrata, Acacia blakei; in open forest of Corymbia trachyphloia, Eucalyptus carnea, E. siderophloia, Casuarina torulosa, Dodonaea triangularis growing on sandy soil over sandstone; dry sclerophyll forest in rocky granite gorge on granite-derived sands; upper slope below sandstone outcrop with Eucalyptus microcorys, E. planchoniana, Angophora woodsiana, E. pilularis. The species does occur on a variety of soil types but generally prefers shallow, sandy soils with a sandy texture, dark in colour, well drained and derived from sandstone rocks (Halford, 1997; Queensland Herbarium, 2012).
- Reproduction
- Very little is known about the life history of P. grandispiculatum. Flowers have been recorded from February to April and November (Queensland Herbarium, 2012).
- Threatening processes
- The main identified threats to Paspalidium grandispiculatum include destruction of habitat by clearing; habitat disturbance by timber harvesting; inappropriate grazing regimes; and inappropriate fire regimes (Halford, 1998; Boyes, 2001). Most known populations are on private land and those within state forests are threatened by illegal grazing, which is difficult to exclude because of insufficient fencing (Halford, 1998). The above ground parts are killed by fire but the species is capable of regenerating from the rhizome (Halford, 1997; Halford, 1998)
- Status notes
- Paspalidium grandispiculatum is listed as Vulnerable under the Queensland Nature Conservation Act 1992 and is listed as Vulnerable under the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
- Management recommendations
- Regional and local priority actions to support the recovery of Paspalidium grandispiculatum are outlined by DSEWPC (2012). A summary of these include: avoid habitat loss, disturbance and modification (e.g. monitor known populations to identify key threats, minimise adverse impacts from land use at known sites; monitor the progress of recovery, including the effectiveness of management actions and the need to adapt them if necessary; identify populations of high conservation priority); minimise trampling, browsing or grazing (e.g. develop and implement a stock management plan for roadside verges and travelling stock routes; manage known sites to ensure appropriate grazing regimes occur; manage fire (e.g. develop and implement a suitable fire management strategy for P. grandispiculatum); increase conservation information (e.g. raise awareness of P. grandispiculatum within the local community); and enable recovery of additional sites and/or populations (e.g. undertake appropriate seed collection and storage).
Additional recommendations include the establishment of a protective barrier (0.25 ha) that excludes clearing and timber harvesting with P. grandispiculatum to be at least 20 m inside a the barrier; monitor the impacts of grazing and adjust grazing to ameliorate adverse impacts; and maintain current fire management practices on sites where P. grandispiculatum occurs (Halford, 1997). - Notes
- Occurs in the following Queensland pastoral districts: Burnett, Moreton (Bostock and Holland, 2010).
- References
- Bostock, P.D. and Holland, A.E. (eds) (2010). Census of the Queensland Flora 2010. Queensland Herbarium, Department of Environment and Resource Management, Brisbane.
Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities (DSEWPC) (2012). Paspalidium grandispiculatum in Species Profile and Threats Database, Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, Canberra. Accessed 29/05/2012. http://www.environment.gov.au/sprat.
Halford, D. (1997). Paspalidium grandispiculatum Species Management Profile, Department of Natural Resources, Brisbane.
Halford, D.A. (1998). Survey of Threatened Plant Species in south east Queensland Biogeographical Region, Queensland CRA/RFA Steering Committee.
Queensland Herbarium (2011). Specimen label information. Queensland Herbarium. Accessed 24/01/2012.
Simon, B.K. (1982). New species of Gramineae from South-Eastern Queensland. Austrobaileya 1 (5): 465.
Stanley, T.D. in Stanley, T.D. and Ross, E.M. (1989). Flora of South-eastern Queensland 3: 207. - Profile author
- Lynise Wearne (19/01/2012)
Other resources
- Species Profile and Threats Database (SPRAT)
- The Australasian Virtual Herbarium (AVH)
- Atlas of Living Australia
Data source
This profile data is sourced from the QLD Wildlife Data API using the Get species by ID function used under CC-By 4.0.
https://apps.des.qld.gov.au/species/?op=getspeciesbyid&taxonid=10258.
This information is sourced from the WildNet database managed by the Queensland Department of Environment and Science.
