# Lomandra longifolia

February 10, 2018

_**Lomandra longifolia**_, commonly known as **spiny-head mat-rush**, **spiky-headed mat-rush** or **basket grass**, is a perennial, rhizomatous herb found throughout eastern Australia. The leaves are 40 cm to 80 cm long, and generally have a leaf of about 8 mm to 12 mm wide. It grows in a variety of soil types and is frost, heat and drought tolerant. [Labillardiere](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Labillardi%C3%A8re) described _Lomandra longifolia_ from a specimen collected in Tasmania.

This strappy leaf plant is often used on roadside plantings in Australia, New Zealand, Spain, and the USA, due to its high level of drought tolerance. The breeding of more compact finer leaf forms has made _Lomandra longifolia_ popular as an evergreen grass-like plant in home plantings. Tanika, _Lomandra longifolia_ 'LM300', also known as breeze grass in the USA, was the first fine leaf type. It still has the finest leaf of any _Lomandra longifolia_, with a width of 3 mm.[7](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lomandra_longifolia#cite_note-7) In temperatures down to −7 degrees Celsius these plants stay evergreen, and this variety has been recorded to live in the USA at a number of sites including Alabama, at −10 degrees Celsius.