Austrostipa Species

I am impressed by the new grasses book, ‘Grasses of South Australia’ by Jessop, Dashorst and James. I am still studying the glossary to learn the terminology used. I think I will photocopy the glossary and laminate it so that I can hold it in my hand to refer to instead of referring backwards in the book.

I intend to master this book as I would like to be able to go further than say ‘that is an Austrostipa’.

I still have not found a suitable species to use as a native grass lawn. Our naturally low rain fall is the problem. There is no point in trying to establish something that uses as much water as some of the lawn grasses available. I have heard that there will possibly be a need to run a sprinkler once a month to keep the lawn looking like a lawn in the summer. That is a a problem in a particularly dry year as we are having. I guess the decision has to be made about whether we want to have a green patch or not. What would be the purpose of a native grass lawn?

More information on Australian Native Grasses may be found here.