Echinopogon ovatus

Echinopogon ovatus, the hedgehog grass, is a tufted perennial grass in the family Poaceae native to Australia and New Zealand. It forms loose, bluish-green tussocks of upright-decumbent culms that can reach about 140 cm tall, rooting at the lower nodes. The leaves are flat to involute, scabrid and tapering to a fine point. In summer the stems carry a compact, ovate to globose panicle 1.5-3 cm long composed of 20-30 densely packed green spikelets, each subtended by finely scabrid awns that give the head its distinctive bristly, hedgehog-like appearance and aid attachment to passing animals for seed dispersal. The species grows in moist, shaded places at the margins of forests, in damp grasslands, along creek banks and in clearings from coastal lowlands to montane habitats throughout its range, including the Three Kings, main and Chatham Islands of New Zealand.