Description
A tall slender rush with a dark green/grey cylindrical stem. It has a creeping ryyzome and a small single brown oval shaped seed pod near the spike end.

Photos - Dave Wilson

Distribution
Taiwan, Magagascar, Fiji, in Australia it occurs in the NT, Qld and WA.

Habit
In the NT it grows in shallow water margins of still water.

Cultivation
A potting mix with some organic matter and not too much nutrient. Suggest one part laterite soil, one part peat, one part river sand mixed and covered with a couple of inches of sand grown in shallow water.

Uses
Would make an attractive rush for ornamental ponds and has been put forward as a plant that may be used in a constructed wetland to prevent erosion and take up nutrients. May also be useful as a filter plant in a natural swimming pool.

References
Cowie, Short, Osterkamp-Madsen (2000) “Floodplain Flora”
Stevens, Dowling (2002) “Wetland Plants of Queensland”

On 4 April 09 the 4 x 2 x 2 photographic aquarium was set up to photograph Mariana’s Hardyhead. I am not quite sure where the Wildlife Park collected them but it was probably the upper South Alligator River or the East Alligator River in the top end of the Northern Territory.

It is only the first few minutes in the aquarium and they have a couple of split fins from being caught from their pond. In a few days or a week they will settle in and be more relaxed and hopefully more colour will show.