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Thamnochortus insignis
Also called Albintinia Thatchingreed, Roofreed, Thatch Reed, True Thatchreed
Thamnochortus insignis is a species of grass-like restio of the family Restionaceae. It is endemic to Cape Province in South Africa.
The plants are wind pollinated with the male inflorescences in small tassels swaying in the wind, while the female flowers are at the base of medium sized bracts, which catch the pollen from the air and funnel it towards the small fringed styles of the female flowers.
The seed comes in the form of a tiny nutlet inside the old flower, which by this stage has formed two small wings. This helps the wind to carry the seeds away from the plant. The seeds are produced in very large quantities by each female plant, but are not all viable; a large number of nutlets are empty inside. Why the plants expend all this energy to produce sterile seeds is not clear, but is particular to this genus as well as to the genus Elegia.
Thamnochortus insignis grows in dense stands in the southern Cape around Albertinia. It can now be found along the roadsides from Port Elizabeth to the Cedarberg, where the seed has been distributed by the trucks carrying the thatching material.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Thamnochortus insignis by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
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.
