Austrostipa nodosa

Austrostipa nodosa, the knotty speargrass, is a long-lived tussock-forming perennial grass endemic to southern Australia, occurring in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania. It forms dense, coarse tussocks 30-100 cm tall with narrow, often inrolled, glaucous to grey-green leaf blades. The culms are slender and erect, with characteristically swollen, dark, almost knot-like nodes that give the species its epithet. The narrow, open panicle is 15-30 cm long and bears scattered one-flowered spikelets. The lemma is hardened, pale to brownish and clothed with short appressed hairs, and bears a long, twice-geniculate awn 5-9 cm long that is sharply twisted in the lower portion. It is a characteristic species of dry, open mallee woodlands and grasslands on sandy or stony soils in low-rainfall inland districts.