Echinopogon caespitosus

Echinopogon caespitosus, the tufted hedgehog grass or bunchy hedgehog grass, is a densely tufted perennial grass of the family Poaceae endemic to eastern Australia, occurring from southeastern Queensland through New South Wales into eastern Victoria, where it grows in the moist understorey of open eucalypt forests, on shaded slopes, along forest tracks and in cool grassy clearings on fertile loamy soils. The plant forms small, compact tussocks 30-90 cm tall with erect or geniculate slender, smooth culms, and flat or slightly folded, soft green leaf blades 5-20 cm long and 3-7 mm wide tapering to a fine point, with a short, membranous ligule. The inflorescence is a dense, ovoid to subglobose, prickly burr-like panicle 1.5-3 cm long and 1-2 cm wide, pale green to straw-coloured at maturity. The crowded spikelets each bear stiff, divergent awns up to 1 cm long that radiate in all directions, giving the seedhead the characteristic hedgehog-like appearance from which the genus takes its name and aiding seed dispersal by adhering to fur and clothing.