Purple Blown-grass

Status:

Native to Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia. L. punicea ssp. filifolia is listed as threatened under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 (external link).

Plant Description:

Tufted short-lived perennial grass to 65 cm tall with tightly folded leaves to 1 mm wide and to 25 cm long; ligule membranous, obtuse and 2-8 mm long.

Inflorescence a pinkish purple, very broad, open and erect panicle to 25 cm long with slender branches; well exserted from the upper leaf sheath. Panicles detach from the plant when mature and are blown away by the wind.

Spikelets 4.5-7.0 mm long on individual fine stalks and widely separated from each other; each spikelet with a single floret with a fine, strongly bent, long awn or bristle attached near the base of the floret but clearly visible beyond the tip of the spikelet. The tip of the floret is drawn out into long fine points and its surface is either hairy (ssp. punicea) or hairless (ssp. filifolia) apart from a hairy plume arising just below the floret base and some hairs on the base itself.

Habitat:

Scattered in wet marshes and slightly saline swamps and depressions across the Victorian Volcanic Plain.

Comments:

Similar appearance to Common Blown-grass.

A simplified key to some of the species on salt-land can be accessed here - Blown-grass species key