Common name: Sterile Oats
Avena sterilis L. APNI* 
Description: Annuals to 1.5 m high; juvenile growth prostrate to erect.
Leaves with ligule acute to truncate, 3–5 mm long; blade to 13 mm wide, scabridulous, sometimes ciliate below.
Panicle loose, pyramidal, to 40 cm long. Spikelets 17–45 mm long without the awns; each with 2–5 florets. Glumes equal or subequal, 7–11-nerved, 24–50 mm long, upper florets falling with the lower at maturity. Lemma narrow-lanceolate, 18–33 mm long, usually densely hairy, or glabrous; 2-lobed, the lobes with or without a short bristle; awns 30–90 mm long, inserted at about 30% from the bottom of the lemma or higher. Palea with 1–3 rows of cilia along edges of the keels, mostly 2, back scabrous.
Flowering: spring.
Distribution and occurrence: Weed of roadsides. Native of Eur.
NSW subdivisions: *CC, *NT, *ST
Other Australian states: *Vic.
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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