Xanthorrhoea arborea

Broad-leaf Grass Tree

Family:            Xanthorrhoeaceae

Plant:              A tufted plant with trunk up to about 1m high and flowering spikes up to a further 1.5m high.

Flowers:         Cream to white, 6 tepals with dark brown bracts. The inflorescence is a spike 1.5m long and 30mm diameter that is shorter than or equal to the length of the stem.

Flowering:      November-April.

Fruit:               Shiny, brown, hard capsule embedded in spike.

Leaves:          Dull blue-green, basal, tufted, strap-like 1-1.5m long and 5-8mm wide with a somewhat flattened quadrangular cross-section.

Habitat:           Both wet- and dry-sclerophyll forest, usually in sheltered sites.

Features:       Trunk, flower spike as long as stem.  Inflorescence usually greater than 90cm long.

Name:

Xanthorrhoea

                        From Greek xanthos = yellow and rheo = flow (referring to its resin).

arborea          From Latin arbor = tree (referring to it having a tree-like trunk).

Search Criteria

 

Type

Herb       

Flowers

Form

Cylindrical, Spike

 

Colour(s)

White, Cream

 

Petal/Sepal No.

Many

 

Flowering Month

1, 2, 3, 4, 11, 12

Fruit

Type       

Capsule

 

Colour

Brown

 

Other Features

Hard

Leaves

Arrangement

Basal, Tufted          

 

Type       

Simple

 

Shape

Linear, Strap-like

 

Length    

Very long

 

Margins  

Entire      

 

Attachment

Unstalked

 

Other Features

-

Bark

-

Habitat

Wet sclerophyll forest, Dry sclerophyll

 

forest