Austrostipa rudis

Austrostipa rudis, the veined speargrass, is a tufted, long-lived perennial grass endemic to southeastern Australia, where it occurs in Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania. Plants form coarse, robust tussocks 50-120 cm tall with stiff, often slightly inrolled leaf blades that are conspicuously veined and harshly scabrous to the touch, the feature that gives rise to the species epithet rudis (rough). The slender, somewhat nodding panicle is 15-35 cm long and rather narrow, bearing scattered one-flowered spikelets. Each lemma is hardened, brownish at maturity, finely hairy, and tipped by a stout twice-geniculate awn 3-7 cm long that is twisted in its lower portion. It grows in dry sclerophyll forests, open eucalypt woodlands and grassy understoreys on a range of well-drained soils, often in slightly disturbed sites. Two subspecies are recognised.