''Poa flabellata'', commonly known as tussac grass or just tussac, is a

tussock grass Tussock grasses or bunch grasses are a group of grass species in the family Poaceae. They usually grow as singular plants in clumps, tufts, hummocks, or bunches, rather than forming a sod or lawn, in meadows, grasslands, and prairies. As perenni ...

native to southern South America, the

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubouze ...

South Georgia South Georgia ( es, Isla San Pedro) is an island in the South Atlantic Ocean that is part of the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. It lies around east of the Falkland Islands. Stretching in the east� ...

and other islands in the South Atlantic. There are also two isolated records from the

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (calle ...

at the French

Muséum national d'histoire naturelle The French National Museum of Natural History, known in French as the ' (abbreviation MNHN), is the national natural history museum of France and a ' of higher education part of Sorbonne Universities. The main museum, with four galleries, is loc ...

for the

Île Amsterdam Île Amsterdam (), also known as Amsterdam Island and New Amsterdam (''Nouvelle-Amsterdam''), is an island of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands in the southern Indian Ocean that together with neighbouring Île Saint-Paul to the south ...

in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by ...

. It was introduced to

Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the n ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

for basket making in 1844, and possibly as a source of fodder because of its ability to grow in hostile conditions.. Edward Gennys Fanshawe, Tussac Grass, Falkland Islands

Edward Gennys Fanshawe, Tussac Grass, Falkland Islands

It grows in dense clumps, usually about high (although they can be much taller), on wet coastal land and is a dominant feature of much of the landscape.

Associated organisms

The

plant community A plant community is a collection or association of plant species within a designated geographical unit, which forms a relatively uniform patch, distinguishable from neighboring patches of different vegetation types. The components of each plant ...

dominated by ''P. flabellata'' is widely used by birds and mammals. Breeding colonies of southern fur seal,

elephant seal Elephant seals are very large, oceangoing earless seals in the genus ''Mirounga''. Both species, the northern elephant seal (''M. angustirostris'') and the southern elephant seal (''M. leonina''), were hunted to the brink of extinction for oi ...

, Magellanic penguin,

macaroni penguin The macaroni penguin (''Eudyptes chrysolophus'') is a species of penguin found from the Subantarctic to the Antarctic Peninsula. One of six species of crested penguin, it is very closely related to the royal penguin, and some authorities consid ...

, and

albatross Albatrosses, of the biological family Diomedeidae, are large seabirds related to the procellariids, storm petrels, and diving petrels in the order Procellariiformes (the tubenoses). They range widely in the Southern Ocean and the North Pac ...

es are all found amongst tussac grass on South Georgia and elsewhere. The austral thrush is predominantly found in this habitat on the Falkland Islands, with tussocks being used as nesting sites. Collar (2005) pp. 677-678 The

South Georgia pipit The South Georgia pipit (''Anthus antarcticus'') is a sparrow-sized bird only found on the South Georgia archipelago off the Antarctic Peninsula. It is the only songbird in Antarctica, South Georgia's only passerine, and one of the few non-seabir ...

also uses the tussocks for nesting. On South Georgia, it was a principal food of the introduced

reindeer Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subs ...

(which was eradicated in 2015) which had caused considerable

environmental damage Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as quality of air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems; habitat destruction; the extinction of wildlife; and pollution. It is defin ...

, including erosion and eventual replacement of tussac grass in places by the introduced annual meadow-grass.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * Marticorena, C. & M. Quezada (1985). ''Catálogo de la Flora Vascular de Chile''. Gayana, Bot. 42: 1–157. * * Moore, D. M. (1968). ''The vascular flora of the Falkland Islands''. British Antarctic Survey Scientific Reports. 60: 1–202, 1–6 pls. * Nicora, E. G., M. E. D. Paula, A. M. Faggi, M. d. Mariano, A. M. M. A., L. R. Parodi, C. A. Petetin, F. A. Roig & Z. R. Agrasar (1978). Gramineae. 8(3): 1–583. In M. N. Correa Fl. Patagónica. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria, Buenos Aires. * Scott, W. & Palmer R. (1987). ''The Flowering Plants and Ferns of the Shetland Islands''. Shetland Times, Lerwick. * * Soreng, R. J., G. Davidse, P. M. Peterson, F. O. Zuloaga, E. J. Judziewicz, T. S. Filgueiras & O. Morrone (2003- ). On-line taxonomic novelties and updates, distributional additions and corrections, and editorial changes since the four published volumes of the Catalogue of New World Grasses (Poaceae) published in Contr. U.S. Natl. Herb. vols. 39, 41, 46, and 48. http://www.tropicos.org/Project/CNWG:. In R. J. Soreng, G. Davidse, P. M. Peterson, F. O. Zuloaga, T. S. Filgueiras, E. J. Judziewicz & O. Morrone Internet Catalogue. New World Grasses. Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis. * Soreng, R. J., L. M. Giussani & M. A. Negritto (2003). "Poa". In ''Catalogue of New World Grasses (Poaceae): IV. Subfamily Pooideae''. Contr. U.S. Natl. Herb. 48: 505–580. * * * * Zuloaga, F. O., E. G. Nicora, Z. E. R. Agrasar, O. Morrone, J. Pensiero & A. M. Cialdella (1994). ''Catálogo de la familia Poaceae en la República Argentina''. Monographs in Systematic Botany from the Missouri Botanical Garden. 47: i–xi, 1–178. * Zuloaga, F. O., O. Morrone, M. J. Belgrano, C. Marticorena & E. Marchesi (eds.) (2008). ''Catálogo de las Plantas Vasculares del Cono Sur (Argentina, Sur de Brasil, Chile, Paraguay y Uruguay)''. Monographs in Systematic Botany from the Missouri Botanical Garden. 107(1): i–xcvi, 1–983; 107(2): i–xx, 985–2286; 107(3): i–xxi, 2287–3348. flabellata Flora of southern Chile Flora of South Argentina Flora of South Georgia Island Flora of Gough Island Flora of the Falkland Islands {{Pooideae-stub