Austrostipa scabra

Austrostipa scabra, the rough speargrass or corkscrew grass, is a tufted perennial grass in the family Poaceae native to Australia and occurring throughout much of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, and southern Queensland. Plants form compact tussocks 30-90 cm tall with slender erect culms emerging from a fibrous crown. Leaf blades are narrow (1-2 mm wide), inrolled or filiform, rough to the touch with minute scabrous teeth, grey-green to dull green, 10-30 cm long; the ligule is a very short truncate membrane less than 1 mm long. The inflorescence is a narrow, sparse, drooping panicle 15-35 cm long with slender branches bearing relatively few spikelets, each enclosing a single floret. The lemma is hard, fusiform, 5-10 mm long, densely hairy, and tipped with a strongly twisted, hygroscopic awn 4-9 cm long that is bent once or twice and bears short hairs in its lower portion; the awn twists and untwists with changes in humidity, drilling the sharp-pointed seed into soil or animal pelts. Flowering occurs from spring into early summer. The species inhabits dry sclerophyll woodlands, native grasslands, and open pastures on a wide range of soils.