Flora-Fauna

Lolium rigidum Gaudin

(Agrost. Helv. 1: 334; 1811 – Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 1, Pl. XXXVI nº 3; 1966)

• Life-form & habit: Annual grass forming dense tufts, 20–70 cm tall. Culms erect or ascending, slender but rigid, smooth and glabrous. Nodes dark and slightly thickened. The whole plant bright green, turning straw-coloured at maturity.

• Leaves: Blades flat or slightly conduplicate, 4–15 cm long, 2–4 mm wide, scabrid on margins and veins, glabrous above and beneath; sheaths smooth; ligule short, truncate. Auricles small but distinct, clasping the stem.

• Inflorescence & flowers: Spike slender, 5–15 cm long, stiff and erect; rachis straight, firm, prominently angular. Spikelets solitary, alternately arranged edgewise along the rachis, 7–15 mm long, each with 4–8 florets. Glumes unequal—lower glume absent or rudimentary on lower spikelets, upper glume narrowly lanceolate, one-nerved, nearly as long as the spikelet. Lemmas 6–8 mm long, awned, the awn 3–10 mm, rigid, straight or slightly curved. Palea shorter, 2-keeled.

• Fruit: Caryopsis oblong, smooth, 3–4 mm long, tightly enclosed within the palea and lemma.

• Phenology: Flowers and fruits from April to June.

• Habitat & elevation: Dry fields, roadsides, and rocky grasslands, from the coast up to 1 800 m; thrives on compacted, disturbed, or nitrogen-rich soils, particularly on calcareous substrates.

• Lebanese distribution: Common throughout Mount Lebanon and the Beqaa Valley, especially Barouk, Dahr el-Baïdar, and Ras Baalbeck; abundant in fallow lands, roadsides, and cereal fields, often forming part of the annual spring grass flora.

• Native to: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Bulgaria, Canary Is., China North-Central, China Southeast, Corse, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Egypt, France, Greece, Gulf States, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Kriti, Krym, Kuwait, Lebanon-Syria, Libya, Madeira, Mauritania, Morocco, North Caucasus, NW. Balkan Pen., Pakistan, Palestine, Portugal, Sardegna, Saudi Arabia, Selvagens, Sicilia, Spain, Switzerland, Transcaucasus, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Türkiye, Türkiye-in-Europe, West Himalaya, Western Sahara, Yemen (POWO).

• Introduced into: Argentina Northeast, Argentina South, Arizona, Austria, Azores, California, Cape Provinces, Chatham Is., Chile Central, Chile South, Czechia-Slovakia, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Kermadec Is., Khabarovsk, KwaZulu-Natal, Louisiana, Manitoba, Mississippi, Missouri, Namibia, New South Wales, New Zealand North, Norfolk Is., Northern Provinces, Northern Territory, Oregon, Primorye, Queensland, South Australia, Sri Lanka, St.Helena, Tasmania, Texas, Victoria, Western Australia (POWO).

• ⚠️ Taxonomic note: Lolium rigidum is a Mediterranean–Irano-Turanian annual ryegrass, closely related to L. perenne but distinguished by its rigid, erect spikes, awned lemmas, and stiffer habit. Mouterde (1966) noted its prevalence in dry montane and submontane areas of Lebanon as a dominant species in ruderal and cereal-field vegetation.