Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

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Phormium tenax

Common name

New Zealand Flax

Family

Hemerocallidaceae

Where found

Naturalised. Sydney area north from near Waterfall. Blue Mountains.

Notes

Introduced perennial herb. Flower clusters to 4 m high. Leaves in a basal rosette, 100–300 cm long, 40–100 mm wide, stiff, erect or slightly spreading, glaucous, occasionally with red colouring. Flowers yellow-orange, 30–50 mm long, with 6 'petals' joined together at the base, each 25–40 mm long, glaucous, occasionally with red colouring. Stamen filaments red; anthers olive-green before the pollen is shed. Seed cases blackish at maturity, persistent, erect, oval to cylindrical, 45–90 mm long, Seeds black, shining, about 10 mm long.

Family Phormiaceae in PlantNET.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Phormium~tenax  (accessed 25 April 2021)