The Xanthorrhoea

The what??? 

Commonly called Grass Trees, these dudes live in all the bushland areas around Gladstone. You've all seen them, and if you ride off road you may know most of our trails squeeze around and between them; they have very solid trunks. They're Australian natives and are very hardy, and green all year round, even in the hottest, driest summers. 

Forest Folk | Grass trees genus. Xanthorrhoea

What you may not know as dodge their leaves riding through them, is that they have incredibly slow growth rates, about 10 to 25mm a year and don't even grow a trunk until 20 or 30 years old. So at about half a metre high, they're already 100 years old. Some of the taller ones could be between 200 and 600 years old.

Take care around these SuperCentenarians, they were there before us and will be long after us...if we let them.