Austrostipa mollis

Austrostipa mollis is a tufted perennial grass in the Poaceae family endemic to temperate Australia, occurring from southern Queensland through New South Wales and Victoria into South Australia and Tasmania. Plants form dense tussocks 30 to 90 centimetres tall arising from a fibrous, short-rhizomatous base, with narrow, inrolled, softly hairy leaf blades that give rise to the specific epithet meaning soft. The terminal inflorescence is a slender, open panicle 10 to 25 centimetres long bearing one-flowered spikelets; each fertile floret carries a stout, twice-geniculate awn 4 to 8 centimetres long that is plumose along its lower column and twists hygroscopically to drive the sharp callus into soil and animal coats. Austrostipa mollis grows on sandy and loamy soils in open eucalypt woodland, dry sclerophyll forest, and grassland, tolerating seasonal drought through summer dormancy of the basal crown.