Xanthorrhoea australis
| Xanthorrhoea australis | |
|---|---|
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| Xanthorrhoea australis flowers after a fire in The Grampians, Victoria, Australia | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Monocots |
| Order: | Asparagales |
| Family: | Asphodelaceae |
| Subfamily: | Xanthorrhoeoideae |
| Genus: | Xanthorrhoea |
| Species: | X. australis |
| Binomial name | |
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Xanthorrhoea australis R.Br. |
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Xanthorrhoea australis, the Grass-tree, Southern grasstree, Austral grasstree or Black Boy is an Australian plant. It is the most commonly seen species of the genus Xanthorrhoea. Its trunk can grow up to several metres tall and is often branched. In certain Aboriginal languages, it is called Bukkup, Baggup or Kawee.
In Xanthorrhoeas, the main way to identify them is by looking at the cross-section of the leaves. In the case of the X. australis, the cross-section is a rough diamond shape, and the colour of the leaves is a bluish-green.
The species usually develops a rough trunk which may be branched and which is coloured black, the result of bushfires. The trunk is able to grow up to over 3 metres (9.8 ft) in height with a width of up to 1 metre (3.3 ft) and may be branched. The bark is thick, rough and corky. The plant is very slow growing and trunks only start appearing after many years. The long, narrow leaves are crowded together at the tops of the trunks.
X. australis takes several years to flower, and it does not always flower annually, but in the season after a bushfire it flowers prolifically. The flowers appear on a spear-like spike which can grow up to 2 metres (6.6 ft) tall. The flowers, with 6 petals, usually cover 1⁄2– 5⁄6 of the stem.
The crown of leaves of X. australis will be almost spherical in shape, the point of each leaf perfectly marking the shape of the imagined sphere. The leaves crown the trunk in a crowded whorl of long, wiry leaves. The leaves are arranged in a spiral, forming an erect tuft when young and spreading as they mature, with the oldest leaves dying and forming a hanging skirt around the trunk. The blue-green needle-like leaves are typically 14 to 30 centimetres (5.5 to 11.8 in) long and have a waxy coating.
X. australis has leaves which are softer and generally less rigid than other Xanthorrhoeas. Old leaves hang down forming a distinctive skirt-like feature that partly covers the fire-blackened trunk. X. australis flowers from July to December, but younger plants may flower in June.
Grass trees are often very long-lived with some are estimated to be 350 to 450 years old.
The species was first formally described by the botanist Robert Brown in 1810 as part of the work Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae.
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Wikipedia