Image 1 of 2
Image 2 of 2
Superabundance #14.
Xanthorroea Quadrangulata is endemic to the state of South Australia. I planted two of them in my garden in Tarndanya/Adelaide over twenty-five years ago. In that time one of them flowered, twice. I feel lucky.
I have always loved grass trees, yaccas, xanthorreas. Every part of the plant feels dynamic and animated. The trunks, fantastically textured, gnarly and tough, the flower spikes up to two metres in length with thousands of tiny flowers on them, and the foliage, spinelike, rhythmic and mesmerizing. It is the foliage that I have been particularly drawn to. I see each spine, of which there can be hundreds in a single plant, as a line that catches light. It is an element repeated over and over, creating a rhythm, a form, and with occasional irregularity and interruption, expressing a beautiful order.
Images: Pippy Mount
