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Kingia australis: It's no grass tree
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.
Spot the difference!
The one in the background is a Xanthorrhea (Grass Tree) while the two stems in the foreground belong to Kingia australis - a Dasypogonaceae.
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.
It's the flowers that give their identity away.
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...
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Comments
What great photos, Stuart. I don't even remember seeing seed of Kingia in merchants catalogues. It is certainly a very desirable plant.
Posted by: Corinne | October 16, 2006 9:39 PM
What oddly beautiful plants, Stuart. I suppose the Grass trees are pretty small when you buy them - but what kind of heights would either the Xanthorrhea or Kingia australis reach in cultivation, say after 10 years? Not that they're likely to show up in Austin, but I was wondering how they'd fit in an average size yard.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Posted by: Annie in Austin | October 16, 2006 10:51 PM
Wow, thanks!
For all these years I (and my family) have believed it was the same family, and we called them 'blackgirls' and 'blackboys'!
When my Aunty visited from the Netherlands, she was obsessed with getting photos of the 'blackgirls', ha ha, because you don't see them as much(this was around Bridgetown and Walpole).
I'll have to pay more attention to them now then!
:)
Posted by: Simone | October 16, 2006 11:01 PM
Annie - they are beautiful aren't they. Very Australian.
Both the xanthorrhea and kingia take a long time to grow. They wouldn't grow more than about 3m (8ft)yet they would take about 100+ years to achieve that height.
Posted by: Stuart | October 17, 2006 6:09 AM
As you can probably tell by my email address, I love these types of plant! Have you heard of dasylirions? They are the mexican equivalent of the grass tree. They are pretty cool too. But I haven't been able to find out their growth rate. I would love to have a large grasstree in my garden but I like them so much I don't like the idea of transplanting them because so many of them die.
Posted by: Lewis | November 8, 2006 2:33 PM
Lewis, I've never heard of dasylirions but I will search them out now.
Many of the grass trees that are found in nurseries are saved plants from groves that"get in the way" of developments. So they would have died regardless.
I think it's great that they are being saved and that gardeners are transplanting them in their own gardens. One of these plants will usually cost you A$300+ though.
Posted by: Stuart | November 9, 2006 4:56 AM