Spinifex longifolius

Taxobox
color = lightgreen
name = "Spinifex longifolius"


regnum = Plantae
divisio = Magnoliophyta
classis = Liliopsida
ordo = Poales
familia = Poaceae
genus = "Spinifex"
species = "S. longifolius"
binomial = "Spinifex longifolius"
binomial_authority = R.Br.

"Spinifex longifolius", commonly known as Beach Spinifex, is a perennial grass that grows along the northern and eastern rim of the Indian Ocean.

Description

It grows as a tussock from 30 centimetres to a metre high, and up to two metres wide. It has long flat leaves, and green or brown flowers.FloraBase | name = "Spinifex longifolius" R.Br. | id = 625]

It is similar in appearance to "S. littoreus", but that species has hard, sharp leaves capable of drawing blood, whereas the leaves of "S. longifolius" are a good deal softer.cite book | title = Handbook of the vascular plants of Ashmore and Cartier Islands | author = Pike, G. D. and Leach, G. J. | year = 1997 | location = Canberra | publisher = Parks Australia]

Taxonomy

It was first published by Robert Brown in his 1810 "Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae". Since that time its taxonomic history has remained entirely uneventful; as a result it has neither any synonyms nor an infrageneric taxa.APNI | name = "Spinifex longifolius" R.Br. | id = 32179]

Distribution and habitat

It occurs on coastal dunes of white sand, in Australia and northern areas of the Indian Ocean.GrassBase | name = "Spinifex longifolius" | id = imp09567] In Australia, it occurs from Cape Leeuwin in Western Australia, north and east to the western edge of Cape York Peninsula in Queensland. [http://www.anbg.gov.au/cgi-bin/map/winmap?taxon_id=32179 CANB specimens of Spinifex longifolius in Australasia ] ]

References

Further reading

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