| Tasmania
has 12 native species of Austrostipa (speargrass).
These are large grasses, often forming tussocks. They are
very common in dry open places, especially grasslands and
coastal areas. They do not reach into the alpine or
subalpine areas.
The inflorescence is an open or dense panicle. The
spikelets have only one flower, which has a moderate to
quite long awn that is usually sharply bent once or twice.
At the fruiting stage, each flower falls separately
(without the glumes) and has a sharply pointed base.
The introduced Amelichloa
caudata was previously known as Stipa
caudata. It differs from Austrostipa in that
the lemma has lines of hairs. In Austrostipa the
lemma is more-or-less evenly covered in hairs.
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University of Tasmania
