Seemingly fitting into the natural environment, the small and delicate hair grass is often thought to be native, but it is actually an exotic.
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Unlike many exotic grasses, it seems not to have a negative effect on small native plants, perhaps because of its open, non-smothering habit and its short lifespan. It has very little leaf.
However, it is regarded by some as an environmental weed due to its abundance.
The hair grasses have all died back by the end of the year. Germination of the next generation commences in winter and by October and November, they are at their attractive peak. Some specimens - as in the photograph - have attractive red stems.
The seedheads are sometimes collected and used for dried floral arrangements in small vases, with the red-stemmed plants being most useful for this purpose.
There are three very similar local types of hair grasses, all originally from the Mediterranean region. They seldom reach 30cm tall and are often much shorter. They grow mostly in natural areas and on roadsides, particularly on drier ground where larger grasses do not dominate. Disturbed sites are often favoured.
Belonging to the Aira genus, the branches of the seed heads are like fine hair.
The three local species are so similar few people attempt to identify them separately.
ROCK LILY
One of the Creswick district's little-known plants is the rock lily, a yellow-flowered plant rather similar to the common and better-known bulbine lily.
It is known from only a few places in the Ballarat district, including the former Koala Park near Creswick. There it lives up to its name by growing near rocks.
The common bulbine lily grows mostly to 30-40cm tall, but the Creswick rock lilies reach 50cm or more, with several tall waving stems coming from a clump of leaves.
The flowers are a lighter yellow than the golden-yellow bulbine lily, with more flowers per stem.
There are very few records of rock lilies west of Melbourne.
A couple of other interesting plants at Koala Park include small-flower grevillea and hazel pomaderris, also unknown in other places near Creswick.
JACKY WINTER
Several teams of bird observers will hunt for birds on Sunday, in the tradition of an annual local bird count.
One of the birds sought is the jacky winter, a plain-coloured small bird that has become scarce in the past 20 years.
This little songster was once easy to find during the bird count, but this is no longer the case.
