Native Grasses

Dianella caerulea 'Blue Flax Lilly'

Native grasses are successful plants because of the way in which they grow: from the base of the plant rather than from the top. This means if grass is burned or eaten or walked on it is able to grow again easily from the bottom. They have long, thin leaves so they don't lose moisture quickly, and their deep, thin roots help them to survive dry periods.

Grasses and strappy plants in a variety of colours and shapes can be used in the Aussie native habitat garden to provide food and shelter for our backyard wildlife such as insects, small marsupials, reptiles and ground-dwelling birds.

In recent times some new ornamental native grasses have been developed for the landscape and home garden use and these have become very popular due to their aesthetic appeal, denser foliage and ability to be used in mass plantings. These new varieties still have the quick establishment characteristics of the common native grasses and provide a quick and easy landscape planting.

These are some of the grass plants that I am growing with success in my Brisbane sub-tropics garden ~

•  Poa labillardieri 'Large Tussock grass'
• Dianella caerulea 'Blue Flax Lilly'
• Ficinia nodosa 'Knobby Clubrush'
• Lomandra longifolia 'Spiny Mat Rush'
• Lomandra glauca 'Blue Ridge' 
• Lomandra filiformis 'Lyrebird'
• Lomandra fluviatilis 'Shara'
• Lomandra confertifolia rubiginosa 'Crackerjack'
• Juncus ursitatus 'Common Rush'

Native grasses are  extremely adaptable to varying conditions and prove very useful in filling up the under-storey of a bush garden.

Location - Brisbane Botanical Gardens at Mt Cootha

Lomandra 'Tilga' at Brisbane Botanical Gardens - Mt Cootha

Lomandra 'Blue Ridge' at Brisbane Botanical Gardens - Mt Cootha

Lomandra filiformis 'Lyrebird'

Young Poa with seed heads

Poa labillardieri 'Large Tussock Grass'

Lomandra longifolia 'Spiny-head Mat-rush'

Ficinia nodosa 'Knobby Clubrush' (one of my favourites)

This post has been linked to OUR WORLD TUESDAY