Common name: Wild Oats
Avena fatua L. APNI* 
Description: Robust annuals to 1.6 m high; juvenile growth prostrate to erect.
Leaves with ligule obtuse to acute, 3–8 mm long.
Panicle loose, pyramidal, to 40 cm long; blade 5–15 mm wide, scabridulous, ciliolate at base. Spikelets very open, 15–25 mm long without the awns, each with 2 or 3 florets. Glumes acute, subequal, 7–11-nerved, 18–30 mm long, all florets disarticulating at maturity. Lemmas ovate to lanceolate, 14–20 mm long, 2-lobed with the tips ending in a short bristle or these absent, densely hairy to glabrous below awn insertion; awn bent near but below middle, brown or black when mature, 20–60 mm long, inserted at about the middle of the lemma. Paleas with 1–3 rows of cilia along the edges of the keels, often 2 rows only, back scabrous.
Flowering: spring.
Distribution and occurrence: Common weed of disturbed ground. Probably native of Medit.
NSW subdivisions: *NC, *CC, *SC, *NT, *CT, *ST, *NWS, *CWS, *SWS, *NWP, *SWP, *NFWP
Other Australian states: *Qld *Vic. *Tas. *W.A. *S.A. *N.T.
Text by S. W. L. Jacobs & S. M. Hastings
Taxon concept: Flora of NSW 4 (1993)
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data
***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
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