Species profile—Dichanthium setosum
Classification
Plantae (plants) → Equisetopsida (land plants) → Poaceae (grass) → Dichanthium setosum
Sighting data
Species details
- Kingdom
- Plantae (plants)
- Class
- Equisetopsida (land plants)
- Family
- Poaceae (grass)
- Scientific name
- Dichanthium setosum S.T.Blake
- WildNet taxon ID
- 10401
- Nature Conservation Act 1992 (NCA) status
- Least concern
- Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC) status
- Vulnerable
- Conservation significant
- Yes
- Confidential
- No
- Endemicity
- Native
- Pest status
- Nil
- Short Notes
- BRI 008036, handwriting of author
- Description
- Dichanthium setosum (bluegrass) is an erect perennial grass to about 70 cm tall with the culms unbranched. The nodes are usually bearded. The leaf sheaths glabrous except near the junction with the blade. The ligules are less than 1mm long. The leaf blades are linear, apex attenuate, up to about. 15 cm long by 0.2 to 0.4 cm wide, glabrous or with long tubercular based hairs. The racemes 1 to 2, rarely 3, 3.5 to 8 cm long, rachis and pedicels with long hairs. The sessile spikelet 5 to 6 mm long, lower glume as long as spikelet, with long hairs in the lower part, upper part with long ciliate hairs on the margin and with transverse sub-apical fringe of long tubercular-based hairs, upper glume as long as spikelet, glabrous, scabrid on lateral nerves, lower floret with lemma about 2mm long, upper floret with lemma and awn together about 2.5 cm long The pedicellate spikelet about. 5 to 5.5 mm long, lemma of upper floret sometimes with awn up to 6 mm long (Stanley and Ross, 1989).
- Map
- View Map
- Distribution
- Dichanthium setosum occurs from Toowoomba in the south to the Lynd Junction in the north, with isolated collections from the Palmer River on the Cape and Lawn Hill NP near the Northern Territory border. In NSW it is found on the New England Tablelands, North West Slopes and Plains and the Central Western Slopes, as well as in Western Australia (Queensland Herbarium, 2012).
Queensland localities are in the Brigalow Belt, Cape York Peninsula, Desert Uplands, Einasleigh Uplands, North West Highlands and South East Queensland bioregions. - Distributional limits
- -19.9911, 139.931213
-27.5783334, 152.026077 - Range derivation
- Range derived from extent of the taxon's verified records
- Habitat
- Dichanthium setosum occurs in heavy soils (predominantly cracking clays or alluvium, often in gilgai) in woodland or open woodland usually dominated by Acacia (brigalow) and/or Eucalyptus species. The climate is tropical to subtropical and markedly seasonal with the habitat drying out for part of the year (Ayers, 1996; Queensland Herbarium, 2012).
- Threatening processes
- The main identified threats to Dichanthium setosum are heavy grazing by domestic stock; loss of habitat through clearing for pasture improvement and cropping; frequent fires, especially regular burning for agricultural purposes (Ayers et al., 1996). Additional threats which have been identified for the species include invasive plants (e.g. buffel grass invasion) and small populations (e.g. demographic effects, Forster, 2009).
- Status notes
- Dichanthium setosum has a conservation status of Least Concern under the Queensland Nature Conservation Act 1992 and Vulnerable under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
- Management recommendations
- Dichanthium setosum requires accurate survey to precisely determine the number of subpopulations, geographical range, area of occupancy and number of individuals. In addition there is little information available on the landscape ecology, genetics, reproductive biology, dispersal, recruitment or population structure of this species (Forster, 2009).
- Notes
- Occurs in the following Queensland pastoral districts: Leichhardt, Moreton, North Kennedy, Port Curtis. Also occurs in the following regions: New South Wales, WA, Tasmania.
- References
- Ayers, D., Nash, S., and Baggett, K. (Eds) (1996). Threatened Species of Western New South Wales, New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service, Hurstville.
Forster, P. (2009). Conservation Status Assessment for Dichanthium setosum (Poaceae). Species Technical Committee. Department of Environment and Resource Management.
NSW Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) (2005a). Dichanthium setosum - Profile. Accessed 27/03/2012. http://www.threatenedspecies.environment.nsw.gov.au/tsprofile/profile.aspx?id=10221.
Queensland Herbarium (2011). Specimen label information. Queensland Herbarium. Accessed 27/02/2012.
Stanley, T.D. and Ross, E.M. (1989). Flora of South-eastern Queensland 3: 258. - Profile author
- Ronald Booth (28/02/2012)
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=10401.
This information is sourced from the WildNet database managed by the Queensland Department of Environment and Science.
