oats

Avena sativa

Common name: Oats, Common Oats

This grass can be tufted or solitary but smooth and hairless. It is an annual that stands erect and can grow to 25–125 cm tall. The oat seeds nod on their spikes.The leaf blade is 10-45cm long and 3-15mm wide and gradually narrows to a point. Flowers from September to May and grows in winter in temperate regions as a cereal crop or for forage.

Distribution:

Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania.

Western Australia: Drummond, Dale, Menzies, Avon.

South Australia: North-western, Lake Eyre, Nullabor, Gairdner-Torrens Basin, Flinders Ranges, Eyre Peninsula, Northern Lofty, Murray, Yorke Peninsula, Southern Lofty, Kangaroo Island, South-eastern.

Queensland: Port Curtis, Burnett, Moreton, Warrego.

New South Wales: Central Coast, Northern Tablelands, Central Tablelands, Southern Tablelands, Central-Western Slopes, South-Western Slopes.

Victoria: Murray Mallee, Lowan Mallee, Wimmera, Wannon, Grampians, Riverina, Midlands, Victorian Volcanic Plain, Otway Plain, Otway Range, Eastern Highlands, Gippsland Plains, Gippsland Highlands, Wilsons Promontory, Snowfields, East Gippsland.

Tasmania: Western and South-Western, North-eastern.

Bibliography:

Simon, B.K. and Sharp, D. (2002) CD Ausgrass: grasses of Australia, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra and Environmental protection Agency, Brisbane.

Hacker, J.B. and Tothill, J.C. (1983) The Grasses of Southern Queensland, University of Queensland Press, Queensland