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Muttonbird Poa

Poa foliosa

Muttonbird Poa
Photo: Biodiversity Heritage Library, CC BY 2.0

Muttonbird poa is a dioecious tussock grass from cool subantarctic islands, forming dense clumps up to 2 m tall near seabird colonies. It is a cold-climate native rarely grown in gardens, so the key is to match its cool, windy, moist, nutrient-rich conditions.

Family
Poaceae (Grass family)
Grows as
Grass
Light
Full sun, Part shade
Water
Keep soil consistently moist in the growing season, though it tolerates wet, windy conditions in the wild.
Soil
Moist, fertile, well-drained soil enriched with organic matter, often influenced by seabird guano in the wild.
Temperature
Cool temperate; tolerates cold winters, struggles in sustained heat above about 25 °C.
How easy
Moderate
Native range
S. New Zealand South I. to Macquarie Is.
Climate
temperate

About

Poa foliosa is a species of tussock grass commonly known as muttonbird poa. It is native to the subantarctic islands of New Zealand and Australia.

Where it grows

In New Zealand the grass is found on the north-eastern Tītī / Muttonbird Islands, as well as on the Solander, Snares, Antipodes, Auckland and Campbell Islands. It is also found on Australia's Macquarie Island. The habitat is coastal and subcoastal, often near seabird colonies.

Other Poa plants

Catalina grass · Catalina grass · Short bluegrass · Limestone Cushion Poa · Poa acinaciphylla · Grass Lane Cove River · Alpigene Bluegrass · Alpine bluegrass · Grove bluegrass · Hartz's Bluegrass · Narrow-leaved meadow-grass · Annual Meadow Grass

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Poa foliosa 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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