Spinifex sericeus

Long-creeping perennial. Culms decumbent to erect, to 60 cm high; nodes glabrous. Leaves densely silky-pubescent; blade silvery, flat to loosely inrolled, 10–35 cm long, 4–10 mm wide; ligule 4–9 mm long. Male inflorescence c. 10–20 cm long, usually with 1-several narrow clusters of spikes or racemes below a terminal, umbel-like cluster, each raceme or spike subtended by a prominent papery bract. Spikelets 8–14 mm long, glumes subequal, 7–11-nerved, hairy; lower floret staminate or neuter, as long as the spikelet, its lemma 5-nerved, papery, glabrous or ciliate along margin, its palea subequal to lemma; upper floret staminate, more or less equal to lower; female inflorescence almost spherical, to 25 cm diam. (breaking free intact at maturity and rolling, windblown across the sand). Spikelets sessile, each subtended by a papery bract and a stiff, stout, silky-pubescent bristle to 15 cm long; individual spikelets resembling those of male inflorescence but often longer, to 25 mm, with the lower floret neuter. Flowers Sep.–Feb.