''Lepidosperma concavum'', commonly known as the sandhill sword-sedge, is a plant found in coastal regions of south-eastern and eastern

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. It grows on sandy soils in

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

and

heath A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler ...

land.

Description

The sandhill sword-sedge is a tufted

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

with a short vertical

rhizome In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow hori ...

and rigid, erect, sharp-edged culms. It grows to 20–60 cm in height and 3–7 mm in width. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

is erect, dense, ovate to oblong, 3–15 cm long and 2–4 cm in diameter, with a shorter involucral

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

. The numerous spikelets are 5–8 mm long, with 6 to 8 bracts, covered in short fine hairs, red-brown to grey-brown. There are 6 scales at the base of stamen, whitish in colour. The smooth, pale to dark brown, ovoid nut is 2.7–4.0 mm long and 1.3–1.8 mm in diameter. It flowers in spring and summer.

References

concavum Flora of New South Wales Flora of South Australia Flora of Queensland Flora of Victoria (state) Flora of Tasmania Poales of Australia Plants described in 1804 {{Australia-plant-stub