Enneapogon polyphyllus

Enneapogon polyphyllus, known as leafy nine-awn or limestone bottle-washer grass, is a tufted perennial grass of the family Poaceae and one of the Australian representatives of the cosmopolitan genus Enneapogon, also called bottle-washer or pappus grasses. It forms low compact tussocks of slender, often densely leafy, fine in-rolled blades arising from a fibrous root system, with culms typically 15 to 50 cm tall. The inflorescence is a small, narrow, contracted panicle, dense, often pale or silvery-grey in appearance, with each spikelet bearing the characteristic nine plumose awns of the genus that arise from the lemmas of the upper sterile florets; only the lowest floret is fertile. The species is native and widespread across arid and semi-arid Australia, particularly on calcareous and stony soils of the inland, where it provides valuable forage in rangelands. Like its congeners, it is well adapted to drought and is often locally abundant after summer rains.