Citation: Kunth, Enum. Pl. 2:332 (1837).

Synonymy: G. tetragonocarpa Boeckeler, Linnaea 38:347 (1874). , Cladium psittacorum, Gahnia psittacorum, Gahnia sieberana

Common name: Red-fruit saw-sedge.

Description:
Perennial, with stiff erect cylindrical striate stems 1-2.5 m high; leaves long, stiff, filiform, with involute margins, scabrous with minute erect teeth, rising from close smooth sheaths, the uppermost leaf sometimes as long as the panicle.

Panicle compound, 25-65 cm long, 4-7 cm broad, dense, the primary branches erect-spreading and 5-10 cm long, the lower ones subtended by leafy bracts often as long as the branches; secondary branches 1-3 cm long; spikelets subsessile, oblong, 2-flowered, at first yellowish-brown, later ovoid and almost black, 4-7 mm long; the outer empty glumes 4-6, the lowest minute, the others mucronate, keeled and faintly 3-nerved; flowering glumes 2, short, rounded, membranous, each with 4 stamens, but only, the upper flower fertile; style branches 3.

Nut ellipsoid-ovoid, 3-4 x 1.5-2.5 mm, bluntly 3- or 4-angled with very convex sides, almost globose, red, shiny, finally pendulous from the spikelet by the filaments which are rather shorter than the nut or only equal to it in length.

Published illustration: Williams (1980) Native plants of Queensland, p. 129.

Distribution:  Grows in damp usually shady localities. S.Aust.: SL, KI.   Qld; N.S.W.; Vic.; Tas.   New Guinea. Conservation status: native Flowering time: throughout the year.

SA Distribution Map based on current data relating to specimens held in the State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: No text

Author: Not yet available