Common name
Feather Speargrass
Elegant Speargrass

Derivation
Austrostipa S.W.L.Jacobs & J.Everett, Telopea 6: 582 (1996); from the Latin austro (south or southern) and Stipa (the name of a related genus), referring to the Australian distribution of the species.

elegantissima- from the Latin elegans (elegant) and -issima (most). Very attractive in respect of the inflorescence.

Published in
Telopea 6: 585 (1996).

Common synonyms
Stipa elegantissima Labill.

Habit
Perennial, tufted. Rhizomes short or elongated. Culms sprawling or clambering, 100–300 cm tall. Mid-culm nodes glabrous. Lateral branches branched. Leaf-sheaths scaberulous, glabrous on surface. Ligule an eciliate membrane, 2–5 mm long, membranous, lacerate, obtuse. Leaf-blades involute, 1–2 mm wide.

Inflorescence
Inflorescence compound, a panicle, exserted. Panicle open, pyramidal, 15–25 cm long. Primary panicle branches whorled at most nodes, branching divaricately. Panicle branches plumose.

Spikelets
Spikelets solitary. Pedicels filiform, plumose. Fertile spikelets 1-flowered, comprising 1 fertile floret, without rhachilla extension, lanceolate, terete, 8–10 mm long, breaking up at maturity. Spikelets disarticulating below each fertile floret. Floret callus evident, 1 mm long, pubescent, acute.

Glumes
Glumes persistent, similar, subequal in width, thinner than fertile lemma. Lower glume lanceolate, 7–12 mm long, 75–85% length of upper glume, membranous, 3-nerved. Lower glume surface pubescent. Lower glume apex acute or acuminate. Upper glume lanceolate, 7–11 mm long, membranous, 3-nerved. Upper glume surface pubescent. Upper glume apex acuminate.

Florets
Fertile lemma lanceolate, subterete, 8 mm long, coriaceous. Lemma surface scabrous, rough above, pubescent. Lemma margins convolute, covering most of palea. Lemma apex lobed, with lobes 0.8 mm long, 1-awned. Median (principal) awn geniculate or bigeniculate, 20–55 mm long overall, with a twisted column. Column 8–15(–20) mm long, scabrous, plumose, with 0.1–0.2 mm long hairs. Palea 2 mm long, 25% of length of lemma, without keels. Stigmas 2. Grain 4–5 mm long.

Continental Distribution:
Australasia.

Australian Distribution:
Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria.

Western Australia: Canning, Carnegie, Ashburton, Carnarvon, Austin. Eucla, Irwin, Drummond, Dale, Eyre, Roe, Avon, Coolgardie. South Australia: Nullabor, Gairdner-Torrens Basin, Flinders Ranges, Eastern, Eyre Peninsula, Northern Lofty, Murray, Yorke Peninsula, Southern Lofty, Kangaroo Island, South-eastern. New South Wales: Central Coast, Northern Tablelands, Central Tablelands, Southern Tablelands, Central-Western Slopes, South-Western Slopes, North-Western Plains, South-Western Plains, North Far Western Plains, South Far Western Plains. Victoria: Murray Mallee, Lowan Mallee, Wimmera, Grampians, Riverina, Midlands, Victorian Volcanic Plain, Gippsland Plains.

Classification. (GPWG 2001):
Pooideae: Stipeae

Notes
Native. Southern Western Slopes and Plains of New South Wales, extending into Victoria, across the mallee regions of South Australia and the southern regions of Western Australia.