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Mitchell Grass

Astrebla

Mitchell Grass
Photo: Mark Marathon, CC BY-SA 4.0

Astrebla, known as Mitchell grass, is a genus of deep-rooted, drought-tolerant perennial grasses native only to Australia, where they dominate large areas of clay plains. Commonly grown members are rarely cultivated outside rangelands, and they need dry, open conditions on heavy soils.

Family
Poaceae (Grass family)
Grows as
Grass, Annual
Light
Full sun
Water
Water sparingly; the grass goes dormant in drought and survives on rain alone.
Soil
Heavy clay or cracking clay soils.
How easy
Moderate
Edible
Yes, some parts

About

Astrebla is a small genus of xerophytic (adapted to survive in an environment with little liquid water) grasses found only in Australia. They are the dominant grass across much of the continent. They are commonly known as Mitchell grass after Scottish explorer Thomas Mitchell (1792-1855), who first collected a specimen near Bourke in New South Wales.

Mitchell grasses grow on clay soils, mainly between an upper limit of 600 millimetres or 24 inches and a lower limit of 200 millimetres or 8 inches average annual rainfall, and at even lower rainfall in depressions where the water concentrates following rains, for example in Sturt's Stony Desert. Mitchell grasses are deep-rooted and become dormant during drought, allowing them to survive extended periods without rainfall.

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Astrebla 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.

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