Poa fawcettiae
Vickery Horny Snow-grassTufted, glaucous, glabrous perennial, rarely shortly rhizomatous or stoloniferous in shaded sites, culms erect, to c. 60 cm high, often purplish. Leaves smooth; sheath commonly purplish (but often pale in plants from shaded sites); blade inrolled-terete, somewhat firm to quite rigid and pungent pointed, to c. 15(–30) cm long and c. 1 mm diam., indistinctly nerved; ligule truncate, firmly membranous, 0.3–1 mm long. Inflorescence a more or less pyramidal panicle, to 15 cm long and 10 cm wide (but often much smaller and somewhat contracted). Spikelets 3–5-flowered, 4–6 mm long, often purplish and waxy; glumes subequal, 3-nerved, 2–3.5 mm long; lemma prominently 5-nerved, 3–3.5 mm long, sparsely to densely short-pubescent in the lower half; web weakly developed or absent. Flowers Dec.–Feb.
VVP, CVU, HSF, HNF, VAlp. Also NSW, Tas. Generally confined to drier grassland and open shrubland communities at altitudes above c. 1500 m throughout the Victorian alps, but with an occurrence below 1000 m at Mt Sugarloaf near Buxton.
Occasionally entering Eucalyptus pauciflora woodlands (e.g. on the Baw Baws) but there usually a softer, looser and less distinctively coloured tussock. Along creeks and in bogs on Mt Buffalo, a grass with the same coloration as P. fawcettiae, but with the stature and ecological range of P. costiniana is common. These may represent a distinct entity, but are here treated as a growth form of P. costiniana.
Walsh, N.G. (1994). Poaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 2, Ferns and Allied Plants, Conifers and Monocotyledons, pp. 356–627. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
Spinning
