romantic grass of the week

romantic grass of the week: ANISOPOGON AVENACEUS - a fragile looking native, likes light sandy soil and usually consists of 2 or 3 arching stems about 2m heigh with a frew fine-pointed leaves and a few dry dangling husks (the persistent outer glumes) resembling oat husks, hence the common name OAT SPEAR GRASS. the inflorescence is sparse and pendulous with a few large single-flowered spiklents on long fine stalks. at flowering each spikelet has 2 narrow linear outer gluemes 4 to 5cm long with a prominent stalked lemma between them. the lemma is densely hairy aand has3 awns, the central one twisted and bent and 5 to 9cm long, the outer 2 finer and much shorter. PLEASE HAVE A LOOK AT THE DIAGRAM OF SPIKELET.. can help you identify this grass.. flowers in october - november so look out for it!! nb, this is a monotypic genus - a genus with only one species.. a very special grass!! found mostly in the blue mountains and gippsland on tablelands, open woodland, heath on sandstone. first photo by Tony Rodd at Woodford Range, Blue Mountains

take a quick quiz to see if you know the difference between the weeping grasses of 2013-2014