Staberoha banksii

Staberoha banksii is a tufted, perennial restio growing a large, erect tussock of unbranched culms upon which the tightly wrapped sheaths persist. Male and female plants are separate, growing to heights from 60 cm to 1 m.

The plant in picture is male, its spikelets very different from the female ones. The cylindrical female spikelets comprising many florets grow solitary or in groups up to five, from 2 cm to 5 cm long. This is the tallest of the Staberoha species and produces the largest spikelets in the genus.

The species distribution is in the southwest of the Western Cape, from Worcester to the Cape Peninsula and Bredasdorp.

The habitat is sandy soil among rocks at low elevations, from 5 m to 600 m. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century (Dorrat-Haaksma and Linder, 2012; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist; JSTOR; http://redlist.sanbi.org).