Xanthorrhoea minor
R. Br.
Small grass tree.
(c) Wayne Martin, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
(c) Kim Tarpey, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Kim Tarpey
(c) Reiner Richter, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), uploaded by Reiner Richter
What to Eat
Edible parts: Leaves, Root, Flowers - drink
Young roots are eaten, and the flowers have sweet nectar that can be used to make a drink.
How to Identify
A small grass tree. It has an underground trunk. It can produce several crowns. It forms leafy clumps. The leaves are narrow and 80 cm long and arch over. The flowers are small and white. They are grouped together in a spike that can be 1 m long. The fruit contain hard black seeds.
How to Grow
It can be grown from seed.
Wikipedia
Source ↗Xanthorrhoea minor is a species of trunkless grasstree in the family Asphodelaceae native to south-eastern Australia. It was one of the many species authored by the Scottish botanist Robert Brown. Unlike some other species of grasstree, it lacks a trunk, and its leaves grow from one or more underground stems. The leaves are green. It flowers from October to November. Two subspecies are currently recognised: X. minor subsp. lutea from South Australia and Victoria X. minor subsp. minor from New South Wales, which grows in wet poorly drained areas such as swamps around the Sydney Basin, north to Gosford, and west to Springwood and south to Campbelltown.
References (2)
- Hastings Advance Community College, 2017, Uses for Native Plants of the Mornington Peninsula. 86pp. p 83 (As subsp. lutea)
- www.ceres.org.au/bushfoodcatalogue
