Austrostipa ramosissima
(Trin.) S.W.L.Jacobs & J.Everett Stout Bamboo-grassShortly rhizomatous but clumping, somewhat cane-like perennial, culms usually several-branched at nodes, virtually erect, to c. 2 m high, nodes glabrous. Leaves glabrous; blade flat or weakly inrolled, to c. 30 cm long and 10 mm broad, soon deciduous; ligule glabrous, erose, c. 0.5 mm long. Inflorescence an open panicle with spreading branches, to 30 cm long, rarely more. Glumes equal, 2.5–4 mm long, often purplish when young, acute; lemma 1.8–2.5 mm long, dark brown at maturity, tuberculate, glabrous or with a few short pale hairs near the base; coma absent; callus c. 0.2 mm long; awn falcate, 15–30 mm long, the straight part 4–7 mm long, scabrous; palea up to half as long as lemma. Flowers Feb. (1 record)
MuF. Also Qld, NSW, LHI. Known in Victoria from a single specimen collected in a farm paddock near Nathalia.
Austrostipa ramosissima is occasionally cultivated, and the Victorian collection is most likely derived from a garden plant, there being no earlier records than 2005. It is however conceivable that it is a natural edge-of-range occurrence. It occurs otherwise in Queensland and New South Wales, more commonly on the eastern side of the Dividing Range than inland of it.
Spinning
