Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Lomandra glauca

Plants with male flowers. Photographer Don Wood, Nadgee Nature Reserve, south of Eden

Leaves. Photographer Russell Best, near Mallacoota, Vic

Common name

Pale mat-rush, Blue mat-rush

Family

Asparagaceae

Where found

Dry forest, woodland, heath, and rocky sites. Coast, ranges, tablelands, and the Western Slopes. Occasionally elsewhere.

Notes

Sprawling tufted perennial grass-like herb to 0.3 m tall, sometimes loosely mat-forming. Stemless. Leaves basal, usually 8-30 cm long, 0.8-1.5 mm wide, flat or slightly concave in cross section, usually distinctly glaucous, tips pointed to rounded. Margins of the basal leaf sheaths (at least of non-flowering shoots) abruptly narrowed at the top, readily lacerated, lattice-like, white or pale brown. Male and female flowers on different plants. Flowers with 6 'petals', male flowers about 2 mm long, female flowers about 3 mm long. Flowers yellow, often flushed with purple, bracts golden brown. Male inflorescence (illustrated) 50-150 mm long, axis of the inflorescence below the flowers usually not exposed above the leaf bases, rarely exposed up to 2.5 cm; the inflorescence branched or unbranched. Female inflorescence globular, to 15 mm in diameter, axis of the inflorescence below the flowers concealed or exposed for up to 2.5 cm. Bracts below the individual flower clusters pale golden brown, obscured by th flowers. Flowers Spring.

Family Lomandraceae in PlantNET.

Data deficient Vic.

PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Lomandra~glauca (accessed 13 April 2021)