Aristida vagans

Aristida vagans, the wandering or threeawn wiregrass, is a slender perennial grass in the family Poaceae, native to eastern Australia, where it occurs in open eucalypt forest and woodland on sandy or skeletal soils from southern Queensland to Victoria. It forms small, loose tufts 20-60 cm tall, with fine wiry culms, narrow, often inrolled blue-green leaves to 15 cm long and small membranous ligules. The inflorescence is a slender, often nodding panicle 8-20 cm long with few, ascending branches bearing one-flowered spikelets, the lemma carrying the diagnostic three-branched awn, each branch 1-2 cm long and slightly twisted at the base. The fruit is a narrow caryopsis, dispersed when the awns lodge in animal coats. The grass is of low palatability to livestock but is an ecologically important component of native ground layers.