Scientific Name: Gahnia sieberiana

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  • Pronunciation:
    gar-NEE-ah see-ber-ee-AH-nah
  • Common Name:
    Red-fruited Saw Sedge
  • Derivation:
    Gahnia: honours Dr. Henry Gahn, Swedish botanist, friend of Linnaeus.||sieberiana: honours R.W.Sieber,1789-1844, botanist, Prague. Collected in NSW for 7 months1823. Returned to Europe with 300,000 plants. At least 40 plants named after him.
  • Type:
    Herb Sedge. Woody rhizomes , stolons absent.
  • Family:
    CYPERACEAE
  • Flowers:
    Spikes to 90 cm.
  • Fruit:
    Nut -reddish
  • Vegetation Type:
    Wet Heath
  • Species List:
    EdingtonDr, Cooroibah, Arthur Harrold NR,Emu Swamp, Bush food, Emu Mt., Cooroibah Airstrip, Weyba Nature Refuge, Eumarella Rd., Mooloolaba TAFE, SRR NNP, SRR, Cooroibah26.4.09, Fraser Island, Cranks Creek, Boreen Point, Leslie Drive Roundabout Noosa North Shore PS TAFE Girraween BHNR Noosa Banks Marcus Dunes Noosa River NP NNS Fern Track, Stratford Park, NNS,
Cultural Notes

TAKE CARE! Some information about bush foods and medicines may be anecdotal. Correct identification and preparation is essential:

Bush food. Leaf bases chewed, leaf buds eaten by aborigines. Nuts pounded to produce flour.

Looped leaves used for gathering honey from tree hollows.

Identification Notes

Large sedge Stem Hollow 15-30 fascicles Fascicle: cluster of flowers, leaves, etc arising from about the same point Leaves to 3 metres, edges saw-toothed, BLUISH BELOW.||**Identifying features - Gahnia sp** ||Culms: solid or hollow, noded.|Inflorescence: Panicle with several clusters of partial panicles at each node.|Involucral bracts: Leafy, enclosing each flower cluster.|Leaves: Long, linear, inrolled.

Associated Fauna

Bird attracting; known food plant of Ground Parrots. ||Butterfly larval food plant: Varied Sword-grass Brown, (Sword-grass Brown) Tisiphone abeona rawnsleyi, which is a local subspecies, pictured. Also larval food plant for Spotted skipper, Hesperilla donnysa icaria, Large dingy skipper. Flame skipper, Northern ringlet.

Landscaping Notes

Difficult to propogate||Successfully propagated by Tin Can Bay City Farm Nursery.||Successfully propagated by Mooloolah Native Nursery||Successfully propagated by Barung Landcare||