Botanical name: Heteropogon triticeus    Family: Poaceae (Grass family)
Synonyms: Andropogon triticeus, Sorghum triticeum, Heteropogon insignis

Giant Speargrass is a perennial grass with stems stout, erect, hard, 1-3 m tall. It is a taller cousin of Black Speargrass, and does catch the eye with its long swaying inflorescence that shoots up and stands much taller than leaf blades. Leaf sheaths are keeled and flabellate at plant base, hairless to bristlyulous; leaf blades flat, stiff, 30-60 x 0.4-0.8 cm, hairless to hairy, tip tapering; ligule very short, flat, lacerate. Flowers are borne in branch-end racemes, sometimes with a few in leaf-axils racemes below it. Racemes are 8-15 cm (excluding awns), 5-11-awned, 12-15 pairs of flat green homogamous spikelets below awned fertile pairs. The plants develop characteristic dark seeds with a single long awn at one end and a sharp spike at the other. The awn becomes twisted when dry and straightens when moistened, and in combination with the spike is capable of drilling the seed into the soil. Giant Speargrass is native to Tropical Asia and Queensland. Flowering: October-March.

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The flower labeled Giant Speargrass is ...