Walwhalleya proluta

Walwhalleya proluta, sometimes called rigid panic, is a tufted perennial grass of the Poaceae family endemic to inland Australia. It typically forms small dense tussocks 15 to 60 cm high, with slender, wiry, erect culms arising from a knotted base. The leaves are mostly basal, with narrow, often inrolled, scabrid blades 5 to 20 cm long and short membranous ligules. The inflorescence is an open or somewhat contracted panicle 5 to 20 cm long, bearing solitary, plump, dorsally compressed spikelets 3 to 5 mm long; each spikelet contains a single fertile floret and a much-reduced sterile lemma, with glumes of unequal length and a hardened, finely transversely rugose fertile lemma characteristic of the segregate genus. Walwhalleya was separated from Panicum and Homopholis on the basis of micromorphological and molecular characters. The species occupies semi-arid woodlands, claypans and seasonally moist depressions on heavier soils.