The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Hyparrhenia hirta
Also called Coolatai Grass, South African Bluestem, Tambookie Grass, Common Thatching Grass, Mofula Tsephe, Thatch Grass
Hyparrhenia hirta is a tufted perennial grass that forms clumps 30 cm to 1 m tall and is widely used for thatching, livestock grazing and weaving. It tolerates dry, poor and disturbed soils, and it is a noxious weed in parts of eastern Australia.
Hyparrhenia hirta is a species of grass known by the common names common thatching grass and Coolatai grass. It is native to much of Africa and Eurasia, and it is known on other continents as an introduced species. In eastern Australia it is a tenacious noxious weed. In South Africa, where it is native, it is very common and one of the most widely used thatching grasses. It is also used for grazing livestock and weaving mats and baskets.
This is a perennial grass forming clumps 30 centimetres (12 in) to 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) tall with tough, dense bases sprouting from rhizomes. The inflorescence atop the wiry stem is a panicle of hairy spikelets with bent awns up to 3.5 centimetres (1.4 in) long. The grass can grow in a variety of habitat types, in dry conditions, heavy, rocky, eroded soils, and disturbed areas.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Hyparrhenia hirta 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.
