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Spreading Prickle Grass

Aristida congesta

Also called Tassel Three Awn, Tassle Three Awn

Spreading Prickle Grass
Photo: Heering, W. (Wilhelm), 1876-1916; Grimme, C. (Clemens), No restrictions

Aristida congesta, tassel three-awn, is a thick perennial tussock grass from dry parts of southern Africa and Madagascar, growing 10 to 75 cm tall with plumes on slender stems. It tolerates poor, dry, rocky ground, so the key to growing it is to keep it dry and sunny.

Family
Poaceae (Grass family)
Grows as
Grass, Perennial
Light
Full sun
Water
Water sparingly and let the soil dry out between waterings; established plants need little.
Soil
Free-draining sandy or gritty soil, poor fertility is fine.
Temperature
Tolerates warm, dry conditions; frost tolerance varies, protect from hard frost.
How easy
Easy
Native range
Dry parts of Africa, Madagascar
Climate
seasonally dry tropical

About

Aristida congesta (tassel three-awn, Afrikaans: Aapstertsteekgras) is a species of grass native to all provinces of South Africa as well as Namibia, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, and Mozambique. The SANBI Red List classifies it as "safe."

SANBI mentions two subspecies:

Other Aristida plants

Aristida acuta · Sixweeks threeawn · Aristida anaclasta · Aristida arida · Forked threeawn · Brush Spear Grass · Bentham's Aristida · California threeawn · Dark Wire Grass · Aristida capillacea · Chase's threeawn · Bunch kerosene grass

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Aristida congesta by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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