Veined Spear-grass

A medium-sized tussock-forming grass with flower stems to 1.3 metres. Flowers are green or purplish, with seeds pale to dark reddish-brown when mature. The seeds have long spikes with 2 sharp bends in them. When the seeds get wet, the bends twist and drive the seeds into the ground. Plants from the Dandenong ranges are a different subspecies.

It likes light shade and prefers slightly damp soils but copes with Summer conditions once established.

Maintenance

In the past, the leaves of most native grasses were regularly eaten (pruned) by wallabies or kangaroos, so will benefit from being cut back to about 5cm in mid- to late Autumn. Cutting back earlier risks the sun burning the parts where the new leaves will grow from.