Rytidosperma caespitosum

Rytidosperma caespitosum is a densely tufted perennial grass of the Poaceae family growing 20-60 cm tall in compact tussocks from a fibrous knotty crown. Culms are erect or geniculately ascending, slender, smooth and few-noded. Leaf blades are mostly basal, narrow, flat to inrolled, 5-20 cm long and 1-2 mm wide, somewhat scaberulous, often greyish-green, with finely hairy sheaths and a fringed ligule of short hairs. The inflorescence is a contracted, erect, ovoid panicle 3-8 cm long with short ascending branches bearing fluffy, awned spikelets, the whole often tinged pale straw to purplish at maturity. Spikelets are 12-18 mm long (excluding awns) and contain three to six closely overlapping florets. Glumes are large, papery, pale, equalling or exceeding the florets and giving the inflorescence its characteristic chaffy appearance. Lemmas are 4-7 mm long with two transverse rows of fine white hairs across the back, two lateral lobes ending in fine bristles, and a stout central geniculate twisted awn 6-12 mm long; the conspicuous fluffy lemma indument is a key character of the genus. Native to a wide range of grassland, woodland and disturbed habitats across temperate Australia and New Zealand.