Conostylis festucacea

Conostylis festucacea is a rhizomatous, tufted or proliferous perennial, grass-like plant or herb in the family Haemodoraceae, and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It has cylindrical or flat leaves and yellow flowers.

Description

Conostylis festucacea is a rhizomatous, tufted or proliferous perennial, grass-like plant or herb that typically grows to a height of. Its leaves are more or less round in cross-section or almost flat, long and wide and more or less glabrous. The flowers are arranged in loose heads on a flowering stalk long with brown bracts at the base. The perianth is yellow, long with lobes long. The anthers are long. Flowering occurs in September and October.

Taxonomy and naming

Conostylis festucacea was first formally described in 1846 by Stephan Endlicher in Lehmann's Plantae Preissianae. The specific epithet means "resembling Festuca".
In 1987, Stephen Hopper described two subspecies of C. festucea in Flora of Australia and the names are accepted by the Australian Plant Census:Conostylis festucacea Endl. subsp. festucacea has leaves more or less circular in cross-section and and wide, the flowering stems long.Conostylis festucacea subsp. filifolia Endl. has leaves circular in cross-section and and wide, the flowering stems long.

Distribution and habitat

This species of conostylis grows in sand in winter-wet depressions in heath and low woodland in disjunct populations near Perth, Dandaragan and Watheroo in the Avon Wheatbelt, Geraldton Sandplains, Jarrah Forest and Swan Coastal Plain bioregions of south-western Western Australia. Subspecies festucacea occurs near Perth and Dandaragan and subsp. filifolia is confined to sandplain between Watheroo and Moora.

Conservation status

Both subspecies of Conostylis festucacea are listed as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.