Cymbopogon refractus

Barbed-wire Grass at suppressed

$Cymbopogon refractus at suppressed - suppressed$

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Identification history

	Cymbopogon refractus	11 Mar 2025	Tapirlord
	Unidentified	8 Mar 2025	MazzV

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User's notes

This grass fascinates me, there’s so much going on with it. It is another tufty grass, with very long grey-green leaves (photo 1), including leaves that originate on the flowering stems. These stems appear red, and that colour alternates with the grey green of the leaf base wrapping around it till (what looks like) the next node. (Photo 2, and in photo 3 just behind the featured seed head). The seed head has flowering spikes that stick out at random angles (photo 3). It displays a mix of colours from the fluffy pink (miniscule) flowers, through stems and seed surrounds and other bits I can’t name, so there are mauves, grey-greens, yellows and tans. Photo 5, (which is a close-up of a particularly ‘busy’ part of the single stem in photo 4), shows all these colours. It may be the same grass as at sighting 4651486 which was found at another location on the same property.

4 comments

Tapirlord wrote:

11 Mar 2025

Native lemongrass. Which is kinda cool

MazzV wrote:

13 Mar 2025

Thanks @Tapirlord, I'm chuffed. Does this also mean it is edible? Or edible with
some precautionary preparations?

Tapirlord wrote:

13 Mar 2025

Yep should be edible, I think can be used much like cultivated lemongrass in which case it is said to have quite a delicate flavour. It's quite a nice grass though, so if you don't have much I would keep it around :)

MazzV wrote:

6 hrs ago

Thanks @Tapirlord, I'm seeing lots of this around since it first drew my attention, and it's all flowering or going to seed, so I'm doubly delighted! Thanks too, for all your other moderating on my several recent sightings. a few more to come before I turn to uploading the other life forms I've been recording.

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Sighting information

25 Abundance
MazzV Recorded by
Collections
MazzV NatureMapr New South Wales North Coast Latest Grasses Plants

Additional information

1 metre to 5 metres Plant height
True In flower

Species information

Cymbopogon refractus Scientific name
Barbed-wire Grass Common name
Not Sensitive
Local native
Non-invasive or negligible
Up to 1251.61m Recorded at altitude
141 images trained Machine learning
In flower

Record quality

Images or audio
More than one media file
Verified by an expert moderator
Nearby sighting(s) of same species
GPS evidence of location
Description
Additional attributes