232 
Telopea 9(2): 2001 
CANB, K, MEL, MO, PERTH, PRE, RSA); 2.4 km S of Borden on road to Chester Pass, 11 Oct 1984, 
Briggs 7914 & Johnson 2 (NSW, CANB, NBG, PERTH); 29.1 km N of Needilup, 11 Nov 1986, Hill, 
Johnson, Blaxell & Brooker 9 (NSW 201320); Fitzgerald, N of Grass Patch [as Graspatch], 2 Nov 1901, 
Diels 5296 9 (B, NSW) residual syntype of D. myriocladus (Loxocarya myrioclada E.F. Gilg), not 
conspecific with lectotype (see Briggs & Johnson 1998b). 
3. Desmocladus biformis B.G. Briggs & L.A.S. JoJmsoti, sp. nov. 
Plantae masculinae culmis erectis, ramulis nullis ad nodos superiores; spiculae 
masculinae sessiles; plantae femineae ramulis recurvatis ad nodos superiores; spiculae 
femineae ramulos laterales terminantes. 
Type: Western Australia: 3 km N of New Badgingarra on Brand Hwy, just S of Hill R. 
crossing, 25 Sep 1976, Briggs 6322 6 (holo NSW; iso CANB, K, MEL). 
Caespitose, forming small, dense, many-culmed tussocks. Culms numerous, erect, 
terete, glabrous or pubescent, minutely tuberculate, 7-40 cm tall, 0.5-1.0 mm diam., 
intemodes numerous; male plants with culms mostly branched only at lower nodes, 
straight and erect above; females more sinuous, with a short and strongly recurved 
branchlet at most upper nodes. Basal sheaths red-brown, to 14 mm long. Culm sheaths 
2.5-6.5 mm long, appressed or + lax, acute, brown. Male spikelets borne singly at 5-10 
upper nodes, sessile on culms or occasionally terminal on lateral branches, ovoid, 
5.0-7.0 mm long, 6-18-flowered; glumes 6-18, oblanceolate, aristate, 1.7-2.9 mm long, 
light brown, glabrous, mucro 0.5-1.2 mm long. Female spikelets mostly terminal on 
lateral branchlets at 1-10 upper nodes, rarely sessile at culm nodes, ellipsoid, 4.5-8.8 mm 
long, 1-4-flowered; glumes 4-9, ovate, acute, 2.5-5.0 mm long, light brown, shortly 
ciliate toward the apex, mucro 0.6-1.6 mm long; the uppermost 14: glumes fertile. 
Male flowers: tepals 5, acute, ± equal in length or inner tepals shorter, 1.5-2.4 mm long; 
anthers 1.0-1.3 mm long. Female flowers lacking tepals. Nut ellipsoid, 1.5-2.5 mm long, 
smooth, brown with pale lateral lines, stipitate, the style base persistent as a short 
blunt apical beak. (Fig. 2, 3a-3c). 
The epithet is from the Latin bi-, two and forma, form or figure, referring to the 
dissimilarity in appearance of male and female plants. 
Distribution: occurs in Western Australia in a disjunct distribution, from near 
Eneabba and Badgingarra south to Gin Gin and from the Stirling Ranges to ENE of 
Jerramungup. Grows in sand or clayey sand, often with some laterite gravel, in heath 
or shrubland, often with mallee eucalypts. Regenerates from seed after fire (Meney, 
Pate & Hickman 1999). Sometimes infected by smut fungus (Sieler et al. 1999). 
Conservation status: locally common in the south but apparently uncommon in the 
north where the conservation status of the populations is uncertain and may be 
vulnerable (Meney, Pate, Dixon, Briggs & Johnson 1999). 
Distinguished among the species of Desmocladus by the substantial vegetative sexual 
dimorphism: male plants have straight erect culms, mostly unbranched at the upper 
nodes, bearing a sessile spikelet at each upper node; culms of female plants are more 
sinuous, most upper nodes bearing a short, strongly recurved branchlet terminated by 
a SDike \et. J 
The southern populations were initially considered to be specifically distinct from the 
northern ones and the unpublished name 'D. tenuis B.G. Briggs & L.A.S Johnson 
unpubl. was used for them by Williams et al. (1998) and in our determinations in 
some herbaria. Following further study, plants in the two areas are considered 
conspecific although those in the north are mostly taller (to 40 cm), and have 
somewhat larger spikelets, than those in the south (which are 7-30 cm tall). 
