Lepidosperma laterale, commonly known as the variable saw sedge, is a plant found in south and eastern Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. It is often found on sandy soils or rocky areas in wooded areas.

The specific epithet laterale is derived from the Latin, which refers to the sides. It is a somewhat indeterminate species, with different varieties recognized. As yet, no further formal division of this species has been made. In 1810, this species first appeared in scientific literature as Lepidosperma lineare in the Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae, written by the prolific Scottish botanist Robert Brown

Robert Brown (botanist)

Robert Brown was a Scottish botanist and palaeobotanist who made important contributions to botany largely through his pioneering use of the microscope...

.

The variable saw sedge can grow to one metre tall, and is found in a variety of situations. However it does not occur in the more arid parts of Australia. The leaves can be glossy, 3 to 8 mm wide. The leaf base is usually orange-reddish in colour. The flowers form on a panicle

Panicle

A panicle is a compound raceme, a loose, much-branched indeterminate inflorescence with pedicellate flowers attached along the secondary branches; in other words, a branched cluster of flowers in which the branches are racemes....

 in spring and summer. The spikelets are not dense, and the secondary inflorescence

Inflorescence

An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...

 branches are exposed. These can be anywhere from 4 to 20 (or rarely 38) cm in length. The fruit is an oval shaped nut, around 3 mm long and 1.8 mm in diameter, and is pale or dark brown, with either a wrinkled or smooth, and shiny surface.

The variable saw sedge ranges widely across central and eastern New South Wales as far west as Lockhart. It is a component of two riparian scrub communities in Tasmania: both are composed of ferns, sedges and heaths, one dominated by Melaleuca squarrosa

Melaleuca squarrosa

Melaleuca squarrosa, the Scented Paperbark, is a plant native to south-eastern Australia. It is a summer-flowering shrub growing to about 5 m in height, occasionally a small tree up to 12 m, with papery bark.-Distribution:...

and Leptospermum lanigerum

Leptospermum lanigerum

Leptospermum lanigerum is a shrub, commonly called the Woolly Tea-tree, which is endemic to Australia. Plants are found growing in montane eucalypt forest and coastal areas in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria....

, the other by Eucalyptus viminalis, E. globulus

Eucalyptus globulus

The Tasmanian Blue Gum, Southern Blue Gum or Blue Gum, is an evergreen tree, one of the most widely cultivated trees native to Australia. They typically grow from 30 to 55 m tall. The tallest currently known specimen in Tasmania is 90.7 m tall...

, E. obliqua

Eucalyptus obliqua

Eucalyptus obliqua, commonly known as Australian Oak, Brown Top, Brown Top Stringbark, Messmate, Messmate Stringybark, Stringybark and Tasmanian Oak, is a hardwood tree native to south-eastern Australia....

and E. amygdalina

Eucalyptus amygdalina

Eucalyptus amygdalina, or black peppermint, is a species of Eucalyptus which is endemic to Australia. It was first described by Labillardiere in 1806....

with Beyeria viscosa and
Exocarpos cupressiformis as understory

Understory

Understory is the term for the area of a forest which grows at the lowest height level below the forest canopy. Plants in the understory consist of a mixture of seedlings and saplings of canopy trees together with understory shrubs and herbs...

.

Many species of the moth genus Elachista

Elachista

Elachista is a genus of gelechioid moths. It is the type genus of the grass-miner moth family . This family is sometimes circumscribed very loosely, including for example the Agonoxenidae and Ethmiidae which seem to be quite distinct among the Gelechioidea, as well as other lineages which are...

lay their eggs on Lepidosperma laterale and the caterpillars eat the leaves.