barythrin wrote:
Since we're in the completely off-topic category anyway, what's the most common native grass there? Just curious since I know a few common grasses here in the US but am wondering if they're different in other countries or if we're all working with similar breeds. (Common here for lawns is St. Augustine, bermuda grass.. atleast in Texas where we have high heat and little rain those are most common).
Yes we usually call Bermuda grass, Couch grass. It seems to be a grass which has been developed and distributed worldwide - it doesn't seem to be a grass which naturally occurs anywhere. For us it's become a pest plant, mostly in areas which have been disturbed - the most annoying thing about that grass is removing it by hand, unless it's quite small and it's in sandy soil (which it seems to like) it's very difficult to remove.
In the natural world different parts of Australia have different varieties of grasses - which vary from the region their found in. Of the types of grasses found here there are different species of plants found in the same genus - for instance Wallaby Grass there's several species within that group found locally (some Wallaby Grasses also go under different Genuses because their quite separate from the regular ones though look the same, only to be different because their found in Swampy Areas) - across Australia there maybe Hundreds though. Spear grasses also have several species found locally, as well as Tussock grasses. And then there's this Weeping grass which some people believe there are variations of that grass, though it's a grass found on it's own around here to belong to one Genus and species. In the Mountain country there's a Forest Wire Grass, though none found in the lower areas which suggest it needs a very nutrient Rich soil and moisture to keep it going. Not a lot of Australia has Nutrient Rich soil and most natural plants don't necessarily need that here, or if they do they get it from other plants which release Nutrients into the soil.
Along with the Natural grasses around here are the foreign grasses as well - which come from all over the place. Sweet Vernal Grass for instance comes from Europe and temperate Asia, Browntop Bent also comes from Europe, Wild Oats is thought to have come from the Mediterranean region, Blowfly grass or Quaking grass and it's smaller cousin the shivery grass or lesser quaking grass also from the Mediterranean as well as the Great Brome or Ripgut brome. Prairie grass comes from America, Pampas grass comes from South America, Barnyard grass comes from Europe and India! African lovegrass comes from South Africa! Yorkshire fog grass from Europe, Barley grass from Europe and Asia, Ryegrasses are from the Mediterranean region & Serrated tussock from South America as is Paspalum, Kikuyu is another one from Africa. Phalaris, paradoxa & lesser canary grasses all come from the Mediterranean, Annual beardgrass from Europe and Asia, Slender Pigeon grass comes from Central and South America, and then there's Winter grass which comes from Europe, and Veldtgrasses which come from South Africa - those seem to be the ones I work on most, though I've seen all of these grasses around in my travels. Fortunately the ones I haven't seen such as Mexican Feather grass are ones which have been found by people locally (being sold in shops as something else), though is suppose to be prohibited from sale in our state.
The biggest issue though is the names of grasses - Common names generally have different names in other places - so half those names are different depending on what name catches on - which is one reason why we have Latin names for plants which consist of the Genus and species. I recognise Bermuda grass cause that's one of the names my book suggests for what I call Couch - which Latin name is Cynodon dactylon.
Because I mentioned a large variety of plants which come from places like the Mediterranean, Africa, America, Europe, it may well be those grasses are found in different parts of those regions which depends on the conditions for which they grow in. However just about any sort of grass can naturalise in a totally foreign area and become dominant which is when these grasses become pest plants.
