Barbgrass

Annuals, 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 br anching above base or distally at nodes, Stem internodes solid or spongy, 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 or blade keeled, Leaf sheath and blade differentiated, Leaf blades linear, 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 a panicle with narrowly racemose or spicate branches, Inflorescence single raceme, fascicle or spike, Flowers bisexual, Spikelets pedicellat e, Spikelets sessile or subsessile, Spikelets dorsally compressed or terete, Spikelet less than 3 mm wide, Spikelets with 1 fertile floret, Spikelets solitary at rachis nodes, Spikelets distichously arranged, Spikelets all alike and fertille, Spikelets bisexual, Inflorescence disarticulating between nodes or joints of rachis, rachis fragmenting, 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 1 clearly present, the other greatly reduced or absent, Glumes distinctly unequal, Glumes equal to or longer than adjacent lemma, Glumes 3 nerved, Glumes 4-7 nerved, Lemmas thin, chartaceous, hyaline, cartilaginous, or membranous, Lemma 3 nerved, Lemma body or surface hairy, Lemma apex acute or acuminate, Lemma awnless, Lemma margins thin, lying flat, Lemma straight, Palea present, well developed, Palea membranous, hyaline, Palea long er than lemma, Stamens 1, Stamens 2, Stamens 3, Styles 2-fid, deeply 2-branched, Stigmas 2, Fruit - caryopsis.

Hainardia is a genus of coastal plants in the grass family, native to the Mediterranean Basin.

The only known species is Hainardia cylindrica, known by several common names, including barbgrass, one-glumed hard-grass, and thintail. It is native to the Mediterranean and to nearby regions from Madeira and the Canary Islands east to Crimea and Iran. It is also reportedly naturalized in coastal regions in scattered locales in Australia, New Zealand, the United States (CA OR TX LA SC), Baja California, and temperate South America (Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile).

Hainardia cylindrica is an annual grass of salt marshes and estuaries, thriving in saline and alkaline soils in aquatic habitats. It has a branching stem reaching a maximum height near half a meter. The thready leaves are ribbed and rough to the touch on the upper surfaces. The top few centimeters of the stem is made up of a cylindrical inflorescence with each spikelet embedded into it and dividing it into segments which can break off.