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Dianella amoena
Matted flax-lily is a slow-spreading Australian perennial that forms clumps and mats from underground rhizomes, grown mainly for its grey-green foliage and blue-purple spring flowers. It is endangered in the wild, so cultivate it from nursery stock rather than collected plants.
Dianella amoena, commonly known as the matted flax-lily, is an endangered, herbaceous, perennial plant endemic to Australia. It belongs to the family Asphodelaceae, subfamily Hemerocallidoideae. It has long grey-green leaves which grow in clumps from an underground rhizome, and displays blue-purple flowers in spring-summer, up to 90 cm in height. The common name Matted Flax-lily refers to its extensively rhizomatous nature, sometimes forming large mats up to 5m wide.
Dianella amoena inhabits grassland and grassy woodland ecosystems, often on volcanic soils. It has a sparse distribution across south-eastern Australia, mostly in the states of Victoria and Tasmania, with some records extending the range into New South Wales. The species exists in small fragments of its original range in roadsides, railways, and urban nature reserves, often in degraded habitats. Recruitment is believed to be non-existent, but it is long-lived and persists in remnant clonal patches.
Some plants in the Dianella genus have edible fruits, while others are considered poisonous. Aboriginal peoples ate the fruits of some Dianella species historically, and used the leaves for weaving. Information regarding Dianella amoena specifically is unavailable as it has only been formally recognised since 1995.
Cerulean flaxlily · New Zealand Lilyplant · Black Anther Flax Lily · 'uki'uki · Tasman Flax Lily
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Dianella amoena 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.
