Lachnagrostis filiformis

Lachnagrostis filiformis is a slender tufted annual or short-lived perennial grass of the Poaceae family growing 30-90 cm tall with erect to ascending culms arising in dense or loose tufts from a slender fibrous root system. Leaf blades are flat to involute, narrow, 1-3 mm wide and 5-20 cm long, finely scabrous on the margins; the leaf sheaths are smooth and the ligule is a conspicuous membranous structure 3-8 mm long, often jagged at the apex. The inflorescence is a large, finely divided, open and ultimately spreading panicle 10-30 cm long that breaks off whole at maturity and is dispersed by wind, accumulating as drifts of 'hairy panic' against fences and obstructions. Spikelets are very small, 2-3 mm long, one-flowered, purplish-flushed; lemmas bear a fine bent awn arising near the back together with a tuft of soft basal hairs at the callus, the long lemma hairs giving the genus its name. Native to a wide range of habitats throughout Australia and New Zealand, the species flowers in spring and summer.