I’ve been walking past a patch of plants with clumps of long, flat, green leaves for  the entire time we’ve lived on our property, and only in the last couple of weeks did I realise these Spiny-headed Mat-Rush plants had beautiful white flower spikes hidden away.  From the research I have done, it seems they are members of the Xanthorrhoea  Family.  Once I found this out, it seemed so obvious looking at those multiple-bloomed flower spikes!

The flowers are well-named. Each head of tiny white flowers has protruding ‘spikes’ but these seem to do little to keep predators away.  I managed to capture a millipede in a couple of photographs I took:

The Department of Environment and Primary Industries (DEPI) website states that there are male and female plants.  The flower spikes look similar but flowers on the female plants are slightly larger than on the male plants.  As the flowers age, they turn a straw colour before producing green berries.  I’ll keep checking for them and post a ‘Part 2″ when I find some.  In the meantime, here is a closer look at both the flowers and that millipede.