Large quaking-grass

Description:

A type of grass that produces these large clusters of seeds looking like cicadas on strings or fat bees. These ones are green but as they dry they take on a more insect-like colouring and actually rattle in the breeze. The top two segments are often much darker than the rest and give the appearance of large eyes. My wife calls them rattle snake tails. The rest of the plant is a fairly simple grass growing to about 60cm high.

Habitat:

Open semi-dry areas maybe with some light shade.

Notes:

Also called Big Quaking Grass, Great Quaking Grass, Large Quaking Grass, Quaking Grass, Blowfly Grass, Rattlesnake Grass, Shelly Grass and Shell Grass. Originally from northern Africa and Southern Europe. Naturalised in Australia. Sometimes grown as an ornamental. " Common in both rural and urban settings, primarily in areas receiving between 400 to 700 mm of annual rainfall. In Victoria, it occurs as a weed of roadsides, pastures (poor) and gardens. In its native habitat of Europe, it also occurs as a weed in and around crop lands (e.g. olive groves). Large quaking-grass invades dry coastal vegetation, heathland and heathy woodland, mallee shrubland, lowland grassland and grassy woodland, dry sclerophyll forest and woodland, riparian vegetation, and rock outcrop vegetation " - Victorian DPI