Silky bluestem

Dichanthium sericeum, commonly called Queensland bluegrass or silky bluegrass, is a tufted perennial grass of the family Poaceae native to inland Australia and extending into parts of New Guinea and Indonesia. It forms loose to dense tussocks of erect to slightly geniculate culms 30–120 cm tall, with smooth nodes that are sometimes bearded. The leaf blades are linear, flat to folded, 5–25 cm long and 1–5 mm wide, glaucous bluish-green, and finely hairy near the base; the ligule is a short, membranous, ciliate rim. The inflorescence is distinctive: 2–7 (or more) slender, silvery-silky racemes are gathered subdigitately at the top of the culm, each raceme 3–8 cm long and densely clothed in long, white, silky hairs that give the species its specific epithet. Each raceme bears paired spikelets in which one is sessile and bisexual with a conspicuous geniculate awn 1–3 cm long, while the other is pedicellate and staminate or sterile. The species is a valuable component of native grasslands on cracking-clay soils.