Curved Sicklegrass

In Great Britain and/or Ireland:
Foodplant / saprobe
scattered, initially immersed pycnidium of Septoria anamorph of Phaeosphaeria nodorum is saprobic on dead stem (esp node) of Parapholis incurva
Remarks: season: spring, summer

Parapholis and a few other genera of mostly annual grasses adapted to saline conditions are sometimes placed in the tribe Hainardi-eae. They are distinguished from typical Poeae by the distinctive rat-tail inflorescence and glumes placed side-by-side. However, they are clearly related to other less specialized annual members of Poeae, and recent molecular evidence places them within this tribe.

Curved Sea Hard-grass is mostly a plant of sandy, rarely saline soils near the sea and maritime rocks, but it also occurs around ports and as a weed in cultivated areas, usually below 1300 m, but at 2000 m in Quetta.

Culms tufted, decumbent at base, 10–25 cm tall, much branched in lower part. Leaf sheaths rounded, smooth, glabrous; leaf blades linear, flat or folded, 2.5–8 cm × 1–2 mm, glabrous, abaxial surface smooth, adaxial surface and margins scabrid, finely acute; ligule 0.5–1 mm, truncate. Raceme slenderly cylindrical, 4–10 cm, falcately curved; rachis smooth, joints shorter than spikelets. Spikelets 6–8 mm; glumes as long as spikelet, narrowly oblong-subulate, 3–5-veined, glabrous, acute; lemma lanceolate, 4–5 mm, 3-veined, the laterals very short, glabrous. Anthers 0.5–1 mm. Caryopsis tawny, 3–3.5 mm. Fl. Apr–Jun. 2n = 38.

Tufted annual; culms 2-25 cm high, erect or prostrate and ascending. Leaf-blades flat or convolute when dry, 0.5-3(-8) cm long, 1-2 mm wide, scabrid above; uppermost sheath inflated. Spikes solitary, rigid, curved or rarely straight, 1-10 cm long, cylindrical, the joints deeply hollowed on one side, breaking horizontally beneath each spikelet at maturity. Spikelets 4-8 mm long, the lowest nearly always included on the uppermost sheath; glumes equal, as long as the spikelet, lanceolate-acuminate, the keel not winged; lemma with one side adjacent to the rhachis; anthers 0.5-1 mm long.

Distribution: Pakistan (Baluchistan, Punjab & N.W.F.P.); Middle East and the Mediterranean region; coast of West Europe; introduced in North and South America and Australia.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: April-May.

Seashores, coastal salt marshes, introduced. Fujian, Zhejiang (Putuo) [Turkmenistan; N Africa, SW Asia, Europe; introduced in S Africa, America, and Australia].

Aegilops incurva Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 2: 1051. 1753; Lepid-urus incurvus (Linnaeus) Janchen; Lepturus incurvus (Linnaeus) Druce; Pholiurus incurvus (Linnaeus) Schinz & Thellung; Rottboellia incurva (Linnaeus) Roemer & Schultes.

Annuals, Aquatic, leaves emergent, Terrestrial, not aquatic, Stems nodes swollen or brittle, Stems erect or ascending, Stems geniculate, decumbent, or lax, sometimes rooting at nodes, Stems caespitose, tufted, or clustered, Stems terete, round in cross section, or polygonal, Stems branching above base or distally at nodes, Stem internodes hollow, Stems with inflorescence less than 1 m tall, Stems, culms, or scapes exceeding basal leaves, Leaves mostly cauline, Leaves conspicuously 2-ranked, distichous, Leaves sheathing at base, Leaf sheath mostly open, or loose, Leaf sheath smooth, glabrous, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf blades very short, 0.5-2 cm long, Leaf blades linear, Leaf blades subulate, needle-like, tip pungent, Leaf blades very narrow or filiform, less than 2 mm wide, Leaf blades 2-10 mm wide, Leaf blade margins folded, involute, or conduplicate, Leaf blades mostly glabrous, Ligule present, Ligule an unfringed eciliate membrane, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence a dense slender spike-like panicle or raceme, branches contracted, Inflorescence solitary, with 1 spike, fascicle, glomerule, head, or cluster per stem or culm, Inflorescence curved, twisted or nodding, Inflorescence single raceme, fascicle or spike, Rachis grooved, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets pedicellate, Spikelets sessile or subsessile, Spikelets laterally compressed, Inflorescence or spikelets partially hidden in leaf sheaths, subtended by spatheole, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 1 fertile floret, Spikelets solitary at rachis nodes, Spikelets all alike and fertille, Spikelets bisexual, Inflorescence disarticulating between nodes or joints of ra chis, rachis fragmenting, Spikelets disarticulating below the glumes, Spikelets falling with parts of disarticulating rachis or pedicel, Spikelets closely appressed or embedded in concave portions of axis, Rachilla or pedicel glabrous, Glumes present, empty bracts, Glumes 2 clearly present, Glumes equal or subequal, Glumes equal to or longer than adjacent lemma, Glumes displaced, side by side, Glumes 3 nerved, Glumes 4-7 nerved, Lemmas thin, chartaceous, hyaline, cartilaginous, or membranous, Lemma 1 nerved, Lemma glabrous, Lemma apex acute or acuminate, Lemma awnless, Lemma margins thin, lying flat, Lemma straight, Palea present, well developed, Palea membranous, hyaline, Palea about equal to lemma, Palea 2 nerved or 2 keeled, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis.

Parapholis incurva is a species of grass native to Europe, Asia and northern Africa, and widely naturalised elsewhere. Common names include coast barbgrass, curved sea hard grass, curved hard-grass, sicklegrass, curved sicklegrass and curved parapholis.