Scented Tops

Description

Capillipedium spicigerum, commonly known as scented-top grass, a perennial grass native to Australia. Capillipedium spicigerum is a tufted perennial bunchgrass, without stolons or rhizomes. The culms, or stems of the grass grow to 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) in height and have hairy nodes. The lower leaf sheaths of the plant are silky hairy. The leaf blades are 30–40 cm (12–16 in) long and 5–8 mm (0.20–0.31 in) wide at the base. The inflorescence of the plant, or the collections of flowers, are a purplish open panicle, 10–20 cm (3.9–7.9 in) long with short racemes on slender branches. The flowers emit a scent when crushed. The racemes have 3 to 8 pairs of spikelets, one stalked the other unstalked. Flowering is late spring to autumn. Capillipedium spicigerum is found on lower fertility soils of roadsides, native pastures and woodlands Queensland, New South Wales, and the Northern Territory. C. spicigerum is very drought tolerant and readily grazed.