Letter X

Some of you may have been wondering if I could find an Australian plant starting with X? It was quite easy as Xanthorrhoea ( grass trees) are very much part of the Australian landscape -trunks blackened by fire with a skirt of grass like leaves and spear like flower spike. The most common name for these grass trees when I was growing up  was "black boys, because from a distance they looked like Aboriginal boys holding  upright spears. This name now could be considered offensive, so grass trees they are. 
 Xanthorrhoe were useful  to the Aboriginal people in the past. The flowering spike was  the perfect fishing spear. It was also soaked in water and the nectar from the flowers gave a sweet tasting drink.   In the bush the flowers were used as a compass. This is because flowers on the warmer, sunnier side of the spike (usually the north facing side) often open before the flowers on the cooler side facing away from the sun. 

My X tag is a free machine stitched tag - with a felt trunk and spike on a hand dyed fabric base. Looking forward to sitting down to look at all your X tags ... fascinating to see what your clever minds come up with!