Scientific Name: Gahnia clarkei

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  • Pronunciation:
    gar-NEE-ah CLARK-ee-eye
  • Common Name:
    Tall Sawsedge
  • Derivation:
    Gahnia: Dr. Henry Gahn, Swedish botanist, friend of Linnaeus
  • Type:
    Sedge herb Woody rhizomes , stolons absent. Tall tussock-forming perennial
  • Family:
    CYPERACEAE
  • Flowers:
    Inflorescence big, erect to spreading, with relatively long lax branches, 50-125 cm long, with 10-14 nodes. Spikelets 2-flowered. Glumes 12-17, the lowest 7-10 glumes much shorter and mucronate or split apically, brown to dark grey-brown, glabrous, with apex of upper glumes obtuse. Stamens 3-6; anthers 1.3-2 mm long excluding apical appendage c. 0.2 mm long. Style 3-fid. Spring-summer.
  • Fruit:
    Nut ovoid to ellipsoid or rarely obovoid, obscurely trigonous, 2.5–3.0 mm long, 1.5–1.8 mm diam., smooth, reticulate, shining, orange to red.
  • Vegetation Type:
    Swampy areas,
  • Species List:
    Weyba Esp, Bush food, Peregian Boardwalk, Coolum High, Boreen Point Caravan Park, Wooroi Day Use Area Tracks, SRR NNP, Meridan College, Noosa High School, SRR, Cooroibah 26.4.09, Kingfisher Bay Resort, Wooroi Palm Grove, Cooloothin Corner, Banana, Tewantin Forest Gyndier, Fraser Island, Johns, Cooroibah Conservation Park, Cooroibah Bushland Reserve, Stratford Park, NNS, Dandaloo, BHNR, Kin Kin Creek, Gladys & Harry Spring, Heritage Park
Cultural Notes

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

The seeds of this and other related species were used to make a flour.

Identification Notes

Culms stout, 80-200 cm high, 3-10 mm diam. ||Stem hollow 10-13 fascicles ||(Fascicle: cluster of flowers, leaves, etc. arising from about the same point.) ||Leaves saw-toothed, SHINY GREEN BOTH SIDES.||**Identifying features - Gahnia sp** (finge rushes)||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

Butterfly larval food plant: Varied Sword-grass Brown (Swordgrass brown) Tisiphone abeona rawnsleyi (pictured). This is a local subspecies. ||

Landscaping Notes

Difficult to propagate, but easier than other gahnias.||Feature foliage||Successfully propagated by Coolum Community Native Nursery.||