Austral Grass-tree
Xanthorrhoea australis
Family Asphodelaceae
Centuries-old, fire-adapted icon
About
A slow-growing icon of Victoria's poor, leached soils — trunks are built up over centuries and some individuals are estimated at 350-450 years old. Flowers prolifically in the season or two after bushfire, sending up a spear-like flower spike to 2m tall.
How to spot it
A thick black, corky trunk topped with a dense skirt of long, blue-green, needle-like grass leaves, often with older dead leaves hanging down the trunk. Common in heath and dry forest across the Grampians, Wilsons Promontory and the Kinglake ranges.
Documented on these trails
Found in
- Kinglake National Park
- Wilsons Promontory National Park
- Grampians (Gariwerd) National Park — The Grampians & Western Victoria hikes
- Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve
Source: Wikipedia: Xanthorrhoea australis
Photo: Erin Silversmith (GNU Free Documentation License 1.2+), taken at Kinglake National Park, via Wikimedia Commons