Species profile—Paspalidium udum
Classification
Plantae (plants) → Equisetopsida (land plants) → Poaceae (grass) → Paspalidium udum
Sighting data
Species details
- Kingdom
- Plantae (plants)
- Class
- Equisetopsida (land plants)
- Family
- Poaceae (grass)
- Scientific name
- Paspalidium udum S.T.Blake
- WildNet taxon ID
- 10259
- Nature Conservation Act 1992 (NCA) status
- Vulnerable
- Conservation significant
- Yes
- Confidential
- No
- Endemicity
- Native
- Pest status
- Nil
- Short Notes
- BRI 008020, status annotated by author
- Description
- Paspalidium udum is a perennial grass growing 40 to 90 cm tall with elongated rhizomes. The culms are erect, or decumbent, spongy, with 6 to 10 nodes. The culm nodes are glabrous. The leaf sheaths are glabrous on the surface. The ligule has a fringe of hairs, 1 to 1.3 mm long, The leaf blades are flat or involute, glabrous, 15 to 20 cm long and 5 to 11 mm wide. The inflorescences occur in racemes, bearing 7 to 13 fertile spikelets on each. The central inflorescence axis is 12 to 19 cm long. The spikelets are solitary. The fertile spikelets with a pedicel 0.25 to 0.35 mm long. Each fertile spikelet comprises of 1 basal sterile floret and 1 fertile floret, without rhachilla extension. The caryopsis has an adherent pericarp (Webster, 1987; Clayton et al. 2010).
Paspalidium udum is distinguished from all other Australian species of Paspalidium by its coarse, spongy, creeping and ascending culms (Blake, 1952). - Map
- View Map
- Distribution
- In Queensland Paspalidium udum is restricted to two populations near Townsville. The species also occurs in a few wetlands in the Northern Territory, including in the Daly River area (Blake, 1952; Williams and Collett, 2008; Queensland Herbarium, 2012).
- Distributional limits
- -18.675, 145.0583333
-19.8499417, 146.75633 - Range derivation
- Range derived from extent of the taxon's verified records
- Habitat
- Paspalidium udum is the dominant grass in water-filled sink-holes in rugged basalt, sometimes co-dominant with Phragmites and associated with Cyperus alopecuroides and Diplachne parviflora, found in shallow water. In the Townsville Common, the species is described as occurring in seasonal wetland with Urochloa mutica and Eleocharis dulcis (Queensland Herbarium, 2012).
- Reproduction
- Flowers and seeds have been collected in January, July and August (Queensland Herbarium, 2012).
- Threatening processes
- Paspalidium udum is under threat from smothering by the introduced pasture grass Urochloa mutica. This has been noted as a significant issue in the Townsville Common (Williams and Collett, 2008).
- Status notes
- Paspalidium udum is listed as Vulnerable under the Queensland Nature Conservation Act 1992
- Management documents
- Williams, P. and Collett, A. (2008). The value of controlling Para grass around the Vulnerable-listed Paspalidium udum on the Townsville Town Common. QPWS.
- Management recommendations
- A recent study shows that spraying U. mutica, especially post fire regrowth, results in a significant increase in the cover of P. udum. Conversely, in the absence of control, U. mutica expands to the detriment of Paspalidium udum (Williams and Collett, 2008).
- Notes
- Occurs in the following Queensland pastoral district: North Kennedy. Also occurs in the Northern Territory.
- References
- Blake, S.T. (1952). Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland 62: 98.
Clayton, W.D., Vorontsova, M.S., Harman, K.T. and Williamson, H. (2010). GrassBase - The Online World Grass Flora. Accessed 08/11/2006. http://www.kew.org/data/grasses-db.html.
Queensland Herbarium (2012). Specimen label information. Queensland Herbarium. Accessed 24/01/2012.
Webster, R.D. (1987). The Australian Paniceae (Poaceae). J. Cramer, Berlin. pp. 169.
Williams, P. and Collett, A. (2008). The value of controlling Para grass around the Vulnerable-listed Paspalidium udum on the Townsville Town Common. QPWS. - Profile author
- Lynise Wearne (24/01/2012)
Other resources
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=10259.
This information is sourced from the WildNet database managed by the Queensland Department of Environment and Science.
