Family: Poaceae

Status:

Description:
Panic veldtgrass is a soft, bright green grass of shady areas, with flat leaves 5-15mm wide, smooth and hairless. A distinctive feature is the presence of a faint purple band at the base of the leaf where it joins the stem, though plants may not always have this. Flowering stems are erect with a seed head 10-40cm long, branched, with the branches held out at a wide angle to the main stem, and widely spaced. The branches are often mostly on one side of the main stem. The seeds are tiny (2.5-3.5mm long), green, and without awns (a long thread-like structure sometimes found on grass seeds). Seed drops, leaving the straw coloured glumes in which it developed behind on the stems, gaping widely.

Preferred habitat and impacts:
Shady sites are preferred and high soil moisture helps infestations to spread rapidly, although some plants will persist in drier sites. Sandy soils are also preferred.
Panic veldtgrass is rarely seen in pasture, but is a weed of bushland, particularly on sandy soils close to the coast. It is also common on riverbanks. It can form dense stands which exclude most native groundcover plants.

Dispersal:
Reproduces mostly by seed, which can spread in water, on mowing machinery or vehicles, and to a lesser extent by wind. Dumping of garden refuse or grass clippings can spread this grass into the bush.

Look-alikes:
The native weeping grass (Microlaena stipoides) is the most similar looking grass. Its leaves are very similar to those of veldtgrass, but it lacks the purple band near the base of the leaf. The seed heads of weeping grass are quite different, as they are not straight and branched, but drooping at the tip and unbranched. Each individual seed is held between 2 structures with long awns which are rough to the touch.

Control:
Veldtgrass is easily dug out just with a weeding knife, as individual plants are usually quite small and shallow-rooted. Seed-bearing plants should be burnt and the remaining material should be disposed of carefully to ensure it does not take root again.

Spraying with selective or non-selective herbicides is effective, but will need to be followed up with control of seedlings, which are likely to appear regularly throughout the growing season. Seeds do not persist for more than about one year in the soil, so as long as all plants are destroyed as they appear and before they can seed, it should be possible to remove veldtgrass infestations completely within a year or two. It is more susceptible to grass-specific herbicides than some native grasses, making it possible to selectively remove it from among native grasses with minimal off-target damage.