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Salt-Lake Tussock-Grass
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| Photos of Salt-Lake Tussock-Grass | Family: Grass (Poaceae syn. Gramineae) |
| Scientific Name: | Poa salacustrisi |  Salt-lake Tussock-grass (lighter green) on the fringe of a salt lake Photo: A J Brown | |||||
Status: | Endemic to a few salt lakes in Western Victoria. | ||||||
Plant Description: | Rhizomatous, perennial grass, forming dense surface mats and growing to 30 cm tall. Leaves are smooth and hairless and somewhat firm and folded, growing to 12 cm long and 2 mm wide. Flower-heads are loosely contracted to open and spreading panicles to 10 cm long and 7 cm wide. Spikelets are 4-6 flowered and 5-8 mm long with smooth keels to its glumes. The florets are rather firm with the keel hairy in the lower half. Flowers in mid-spring. | ||||||
Habitat: | Grows on the margins of salt lakes in gravelly clays or sandy swathes but appears to avoid the saline environment itself. Surprisingly, never found around fresh-water lakes. Appears to withstand waterlogging during periods of high lake levels.
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Comments: | Poa is a large world-wide grass genus with at least 30 species, both native and introduced, represented in Victoria. Salt-lake Tussock-grass is similar to Kentucky Blue-grass (Poa pratensis), but is a smaller plant with somewhat yellower leaves than the mid to deep green, leaves of Kentucky Blue-grass. | ||||||
Photos of Salt-lake Tussock-grass
 Flower-heads of Salt-lake Tussock-grass Photo: A J Brown | |
 Salt-lake Tussock-grass population Photo: A J Brown |  Salt-lake Tussock-grass population Photo: A J Brown |
