Xanthorrhoea glauca subsp. angustifolia
Grey Grass-tree at Burrinjuck, NSW
Identify this sighting
| Xanthorrhoea glauca subsp. angustifolia | Tapirlord | 27 Jan 2025 | |
| Xanthorrhoea glauca subsp. angustifolia | marcycad | 25 Jan 2025 | |
| Xanthorrhoea australis | BettyDonWood | 21 Nov 2019 | |
| Xanthorrhoea (genus) | BettyDonWood | 28 Sep 2019 | |
| Xanthorrhoea (genus) | MatthewFrawley | 27 Sep 2019 |
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User's notes
Not sure if I have enough detail to identify the species, or if the location is enough? Any tips on what I should be looking for or photographing with these plants would be appreciated.
3 comments
28 Sep 2019
There are only two possibilities - Xanthorrhoea glauca subsp. angustifolia and Xanthorrhoea australis (unlikely) presuming this is a tree type Xanthorrhoea. The easiest seen difference between these two species is the length of the flower stalk below the flower spike - up to 0.5 m long in australis, and 0.5-1.4 m long in glauca subsp. angustifolia. Glauca subsp. angustifolia leaves are always glaucous (bluey green with a whitish bloom) while those of australis are usually green, occasionally glaucous.
21 Nov 2019
I have now looked at ALA and NSW Bionet Atlas. Both say that Xanthorrhoea australis is the common species at Burrinjuck. There are only a few records of glauca, dating from the 1950s.
25 Jan 2025
There is only one species to occur at this latitude and this far inland, this being X. glauca angustifolia.
X. australis has been widely used as a name for populations of grass-trees throughout eastern Australia, updated information has now defined that there is a geographical separation between X. glauca and X. australis, whereby X. australis typically occurs along the milder coastal regions of Tas, Vic, SA and NSW and X. glauca angustifolia is found on the colder (in winter) inland slopes and tablelands west of the Dividing Range in south-eastern Qld, NSW and central and northern Vic. (Bellette, M.P. (2014) Studies of the Distribution and Taxonomy of Xanthorrhoea glauca subsp. angustifolia (Xanthorrhoeaceæ) in Victoria. Muelleria Vol. 32. pp: 8–15.)
X. australis has been widely used as a name for populations of grass-trees throughout eastern Australia, updated information has now defined that there is a geographical separation between X. glauca and X. australis, whereby X. australis typically occurs along the milder coastal regions of Tas, Vic, SA and NSW and X. glauca angustifolia is found on the colder (in winter) inland slopes and tablelands west of the Dividing Range in south-eastern Qld, NSW and central and northern Vic. (Bellette, M.P. (2014) Studies of the Distribution and Taxonomy of Xanthorrhoea glauca subsp. angustifolia (Xanthorrhoeaceæ) in Victoria. Muelleria Vol. 32. pp: 8–15.)
Location information
- Places Burrinjuck, NSW
Sighting information
- 4 - 15 Abundance
- MatthewFrawley Recorded by
- Yes In flower
- 1 metre to 5 metres Plant height
Collections
- MatthewFrawley NatureMapr Canberra & Southern Tablelands Xanthorrhoea glauca subsp. angustifolia Grass-trees Palms and tree-like monocots Plants
Species information
- Xanthorrhoea glauca subsp. angustifolia Scientific name
- Grey Grass-tree Common name
- Sensitive
- Rare or uncommon native
- Non-invasive or negligible
- Up to 1114m Recorded at altitude
- External link More information
Record quality
Quality score
5 / 7
- Images or audio
- More than one media file
- Verified by an expert moderator
- Description
- Additional attributes
- Nearby sighting(s) of same species
- GPS evidence of location