''Lomandra hystrix'', commonly known as green mat-rush, or creek mat-rush, is a perennial,

rhizomatous 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 ...

herb found throughout eastern Australia.

History

Lilian Ross Fraser and

Joyce Winifred Vickery Joyce Winifred Vickery (15 December 190829 May 1979) was an Australian botanist who specialised in taxonomy and became well known in Australia for forensic botany. Early life and education Joyce was born in the Sydney suburb of Strathfield. She ...

first described Lomandra hystrix, which they published in Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, 62: 286 1937.

Description

The leaves are 80 cm to 100 cm long, and generally have a leaf of about 10 mm to 20 mm wide. It grows beside watercourses in upland and mountain rain forest. The plant is often used for

revegetation Revegetation is the process of replanting and rebuilding the soil of disturbed land. This may be a natural process produced by plant colonization and succession, manmade rewilding projects, accelerated process designed to repair damage to a land ...

and

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is distin ...

control. The starchy, fleshy bases of the leaves are edible, tasting of raw peas. Even when the roots are exposed it will cling tenaciously in poor soils. This species is closely related to '' L. longifolia''; the inner bract and flowers are similar, but it differs in leaf apex, lack of conspicuous marginal

sclerenchyma The ground tissue of plants includes all tissues that are neither Epidermis (botany), dermal nor Vascular tissue, vascular. It can be divided into three types based on the nature of the cell walls. # Parenchyma cells have thin primary walls and ...

bands on leaves, and in inflorescence branching.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15522183 hystrix Asparagales of Australia Flora of Queensland Flora of New South Wales Flora of the Australian Capital Territory Flora of Victoria (Australia) Flora of Tasmania Garden plants of Australia Plants described in 1805