Centotheca lappacea

Centotheca lappacea, the barbed grass, is a perennial grass of the family Poaceae widespread through the tropics of Africa, southern and Southeast Asia, Malesia, northern Australia and the Pacific, where it grows in the shade of forest margins, clearings, plantations and other moist, partly shaded ground. It forms loose tufts with flat, broadly lanceolate leaf blades that are distinctly broader than in most grasses and narrow towards a false petiole at the base. The flowering stems carry an open, branched panicle of small spikelets. A characteristic feature is that the lemmas of the upper florets bear stiff, hooked or barbed bristles along their margins; at maturity the spikelets detach readily and cling to fur, feathers and clothing, dispersing the seed. This burr-like clinging habit gives the plant both its common and species names. It is sometimes grazed as fodder and can colonise shaded pasture.