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Blue Tussock-grass
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| Blue Tussock-grass photos | Family: Grass (Poaceae syn. Gramineae) |
| Scientific Name: | Poa poiformis |  Maturing panicle of Blue Tussock-grass Photo: A J Brown |
Other Common Name: | Coast Tussock-grass | |
Status: | Native of Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania and New South Wales. | |
Plant Description: | A large tussock forming grass to 1 m tall, with stiffly erect, smooth leaves of a rather bluish- or glaucous-green colour. Leaf blades are generally closely inrolled and sharply tipped. The flower-heads are often narrow and dense panicles to 30 cm long, which rarely spread until after maturity. Spikelets have 2-7 flowers, are 5-8 mm long and green to straw-coloured and the lemmas (larger of the two flower bracts) are conspicuously hairy along the lower parts of their nerves. | |
Habitat: | Common along most of the coastline on marshes, flats, sand dunes and sea-cliffs. | |
| Comments: | Similar to other native tussock-grasses of which Victoria has about 25 species. From other species growing in wet coastal environments (e.g. Common Tussock-grass – Poa labillardierei), Blue Tussock-grass is generally distinguished by its smooth, closely inrolled leaves, its often bluish colouration and contracted flower-head. |
 Old flower-head of Blue Tussock-grass from the previous season Photo: A J Brown |  Tussock of Blue Tussock-grass Photo: A J Brown |
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