Jun 242013
 

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.

Lepironia articulata

Lepironia articulata

Lepironia articulata

Lepironia articulata

Lepironia articulata

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”