Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Astelia psychrocharis
Common name
Kosciuszko Pineapple Grass
Family
Asteliaceae
Where found
Bogs and wet sites in alpine and subalpine herb fields. Kosciuszko National Park.
Notes
Mat-forming or tufted perennial herb to about 0.4 m high, covered with silvery white scales. Fruit fleshy. Leaves in a dense rosette, 5–25 cm long, 10–40 mm wide, both surfaces grey-green, tips narrow and pointed. Male and female flowers on different plants. Flowers with 6 reddish 'petals',' free from each other or fused at the base, 15-20 mm in diameter. Flowers in compact, 2–5-flowered branched clusters, more or less hidden among the leaves, 3–18 mm long. Flowering: summer. Fruit orange-yellow to orange.
Coarser and more robust than Astelia alpina var. novae-hollandiae.
Endangered Vic.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Astelia~psychrocharis (accessed 4 January, 2021)
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