Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Xanthorrhoea glauca subsp. angustifolia
Common name
Grass Tree, Grey Grass Tree
Family
Xanthorrhoeaceae
Where found
Dry forest, woodland, and rocky slopes. Western Slopes, Kosciuszko National Park, and the ACT. Tablelands and ranges, mostly north of the Hume Highway.
Notes
Tree-like perennial herb, trunk to 5 m high, often with 2 or more trunks. Trunks with a pithy core surrounded by the flattened glossy bases of old leaves. Scape below the spike 0.5–1.4 m long, 18–40 mm in diameter, flower spike 1–1.6 m long, 40–50 mm in diameter. Young plants without trunks. Leaves clustered at the top of the trunk(s) or forming an erect tuft, 20-80 cm long, 1–3 mm wide, 0.9–1.6 mm thick, glaucous, greyish to grey-green, rigid. Leaves 4-sided, diamond-shaped in cross section. Individual flowers cream, 1-2 mm in diameter, with 6 'petals' in two rows, outer 'petals' papery or more or less membranous, inner 'petals' membranous. Bracts surrounding the flowers mostly prominent, narrow-triangular to almost spoon-shaped, sometimes tapered at the base, and hairy on the margins. Bracts between the flowers pointed, and hairless or almost hairless. Mass flowering at any time, including after fire. Flowers July–December.
Hybridises with Xanthorrhoea fulva.
Family Asphodelaceae in Vic.
Protected NSW.
All native plants on unleased land in the ACT are protected.
Endangered Vic. Listed in the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act, Vic.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=in&name=Xanthorrhoea~glauca~subsp.+angustifolia (accessed 8 February, 2021)
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