Foxes Lair
  • Home
  • About
    • About Foxes Lair
    • History
    • Landscape and Soils
  • Things To Do
    • Scavenger hunt
    • Picnic Spots
    • Walking Tracks
    • Visit the Arboretum
    • Geocaching and Orienteering
    • Ride Your Bicycle
  • Things To See
    • Birds
    • Wildflowers
    • Trees in the Narrogin district
    • Narrogin spiders scorpions ticks
    • Vertebrates
    • Fungi and lichens
  • Other Places to Visit
    • FAMILY bush attractions
    • WILDLIFE bush attractions
    • WILDFLOWER bush attractions
    • all reserves
  • Foxes Lair seasonal guide
  • 1Foxypress
    • Foxypress
    • Vanishing Farms
  • Contact

Foxes Lair Mat Rushes

24/7/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Lomandra mictantha male plant
Greetings fellow Foxies,
Mat rushes are monocotyledons that look like sedges until they flower. They are perennials with tough leaves that grow from underground rhizomes. Flower spikes with small delicate flowers arise from the base of the plant.
Lomandra micrantha has tiny flowers that I did not find until about 5 years ago. You need a camera with a macro lens to appreciate the delicate beauty of these apparently drab flowers.
Lomandras are dioecious (boy and girl) plants that appear to have the same flowers until you look (very) closely.
I found only male plants on the clay flats. These have six prominent stamens, but the pistil (stalk from the ovary that receives pollen for fertilisation), is short and sterile – a pistillode.
On stony gravel soil near the Banksia Walk I found a single plant, which was female. Flowers had insignificant sterile stamens (staminodes).
These flowers had been fertilised (I think), as the ovary was swollen. If so, a male plant must be reasonably close by.
Picture
Lomandra micrantha female
Picture
Lomandra micrantha male
Scented Lomandra Lomandra effusa is an attractive plant that is common near the Claypit and flowers in September.
Picture
Flowering Lomandra effusa
Picture
Seeding Lomandra effusa
Picture
Male flower. Central pistil reduced and sterile
Picture
Picture
Little Fringe-Leaf /Chamaexeros serra also flowers on the Claypit flats in September and October. Plants in this genus are mat rushes with bisexual flowers and fringed leaves.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Doug Sawkins is a friend of Foxes Lair 

    Categories

    All
    Animals Other
    Birds
    Disorders Plant Animal
    Fungi Lichens
    History
    Insects Bugs Other Arthropods
    Landscapes Soils
    Other Reserves And Places
    Reptiles
    Spiders Other Arachnids
    Tree
    Walks Other Facilities
    Wasp
    Wildflowers Orchids
    Wildflowers Other Summer Autumn
    Wildflowers Other Winter Spring
    Wildflowers Parasitic

    Archives

    December 2022
    October 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    July 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    September 2014
    August 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    May 2012
    March 2012
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    April 2011

© 2015 All Rights Reserved. Doug Sawkins, Australia.