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Tussock Poa
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| Photos of Tussock Poa | Family: Grass (Poaceae syn. Gramineae) |
| Scientific Name: | Poa labiilardierei |  Tussock Poa plant Photo: A J Brown | |||||
Other Common Names: | Poa Tussock, Tussock Grass, Common Tussock-grass, Large Tussock-grass, Silver Tussock-grass, River Tussock | ||||||
Status: | Australian native | ||||||
Plant Description: | Tufted perennial grass to 130 cm tall with flat to inrolled, hairless, slightly rough, fairly rigid, leaf blades to 80 cm long and 3.5 mm wide. Flower-heads are open and spreading panicles to 25 cm long and 15 cm wide. Each spikelet contains 3-5 green or purplish florets which are hairy along the lower part of their keeled backs and have a ‘web’ of finely tangled hairs at their bases. | ||||||
Habitat: | A common grass across the wetter parts of Victoria, occurring on alluvial flats and stream sides, where it may be the dominant component of the vegetation. Generally indicative of fresh-water habitat but some undescribed varieties appear to have some salt tolerance.
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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. Tussock Poa is very similar to Blue Tussock-grass (Poa poiformis) which is found close to the coast. Tussock Poa differs from Blue Tussock-grass in having mid-green leaves that are rather rough to the feel and usually flat and an open flower-head, whereas the latter almost always has bluish, inrolled and rather smooth leaves with somewhat contracted panicles. Other smaller Poa’s of wet habitats include Annual Poa (Poa annua), Kentucky Blue-grass (Poa pratensis), Salt-lake Tussock-grass (Poa sallacustris) and Wind-flattened Tussock-grass (Poa physoclina). | ||||||
 Flower-head of Tussock Poa Photo: A J Brown |  Tussock base of Tussock Poa Photo: A J Brown |
 Spikelets of Tussock Poa with exserted anthers Photo: A J Brown |  Leaves of Tussock Poa Photo: A J Brown |
 Tussock Poa spikelets Photo: A J Brown |
