On our recent tour through the Stirling Ranges we ventured up Bluff Knoll and saw our first Kingia australis plants. Commonly mistaken as a relative of the Grass Tree (Blackboy) Xanthorrhea these beautiful specimens are still quite different. The Xanthorrhea’s have very dark foliage while the Kingia’s have soft grey eminating from a soft felt-like centre.

The Kingia’s are more common throughout this region of the state while the grass trees can be found throughout most of the mid coastal areas.

As you drive through this densely forested area you can easily mistake the kingias for a grass tree and vice versa. That is until they flower. The xanthorreas flower with a single phallic spike, while the kingias flower with multiple stemmed pom-poms resembling the horns on a giraffe or drumsticks. Prior to correct identification it was thought that the grass trees were the male of the species while the kingias were the female partner.

They’re beautiful structured plants and would look fantastic as an architectural specimen. However, they aren’t in being cultivated as yet and there doesn’t seem to be plans as such. Xanthorrheas, on the other hand, can be purchased quite easily and they will usually fetch prices in the hundreds of dollars for a single plant.
The price may have something to do with them taking so long to get to this stage…