Aciphylla Congesta

Aciphylla congesta is a remarkable New Zealand alpine speargrass that abandons the usual open rosette form to create dense, slowly expanding cushions and mats. Thick blue-green to yellow-green leaves are divided into short segments with reddish or orange winter margins and comparatively weak spines. In summer, rounded cream flower heads rise above the foliage like miniature snowballs. Endemic to saturated bogs, seepages and tarn margins at high altitude, it is a specialist collector’s plant for a cool trough or bog bed with constant moisture and open light.