Saturday, February 18, 2012

Wattle Matrush

Lomandra filiformis
Family: LAXMANNIACEAE


This little perennial matrush grows naturally on the redsoil along the Great Dividing Range, and can be found among grasses in woodland at Mt Kynoch (among other places). The ones in my garden are flowering at present.










Perhaps the neatest of a rather neat-looking plant group, this is a very good plant for formal-looking gardens. It has narrow, shiny, yellow-green leaves, and its flowers look rather miniature wattle blossoms which have lost their way - though close examination shows that the little “balls” are really flowers with petals.

Plants are either male or female, and these flowers show that this is a male plant (female flowers are more tubular in shape).




It’s a very hardy plant, tolerating drought, frost, and even bushfires. It gets burnt but the plants regrow, and may be stimulated by their harrowing experience into better flowering.
It has no known pests or diseases, and can be grown in full or part sun.
The leaves are very strong indeed, and very suitable for basketry.

2 comments:

Judi Gray said...

This looks a lot like the flower on plants that we have here at Kleinton. i recently took some photos of the flower for id purposes, so will have a look to compare. Thankyou. Judi.

Patricia Gardner said...

Nice to hear from you, Judi. This plant is very likely to grow at Kleinton, so may be what you have.
Trish