Entolasia stricta

Entolasia stricta, the wiry panic or right-angle grass, is a tufted perennial grass in the family Poaceae endemic to eastern Australia, occurring from Queensland through New South Wales to Victoria. It is a characteristic understorey grass of dry sclerophyll eucalypt forest, sandstone heath, and open woodland on sandy infertile soils, often dominant in the ground layer after fire. The plant forms erect tussocks 30-100 cm tall, with wiry, slender, sparingly branched culms and a fibrous root system that lacks rhizomes. The leaf blades are narrow, 5-20 cm long and 1-3 mm wide, flat to slightly inrolled, dull green to yellowish-green, often diverging from the stem at a wide angle (giving the alternative common name); leaf sheaths are smooth and the ligule is a short ciliate membrane. The inflorescence is an open or slightly contracted panicle 5-15 cm long with stiff, ascending to spreading branches bearing single spikelets at intervals. Each spikelet is small (3-4 mm long), elliptic, two-flowered with one fertile floret, and bears a pair of very unequal glumes characteristic of the genus. The species flowers irregularly in response to rainfall and fire and provides modest grazing value for native fauna.