Tussocks in the Britten Reserve

We have many different tussock grasses in New Zealand, and this is the common one around here, silver tussock, or Poa cita.  It looks very attractive in a mass, across a hill slope, but doesn't stay like this for long naturally.  

The original vegetation where these tussocks are growing would have been forest and scrub, but when this was cleared, tussocks and other native grasses and herbs replaced it.  Farmers grazed the land, and improved some of it with exotic grasses.  The tussocks tend to be replaced by these grasses, but as the latter are more palatable to stock, light grazing is good for maintaining the tussocks.  If they are not grazed, though, these tussock covered slopes will gradually be invaded by woody vegetation, both exotic and native shrubs and trees, gradually returning to forest.