tussock

In New Zealand you hear a lot about tussock, the native grasses that covered much of the eastern half of the South Island when Europeans arrived. On our way to and from Te Anau, we went through a red tussock conservation area. In the first photo, you can see some clumps of tussock in the foreground. The wind was blowing strongly, so the tussock is being blown to the right. The blades of grass are about 18 inches long and tussock always grows in clumps. In the background, the hillside has a lot of tussock growing on it.

In the next photo, that hillside in the upper left side of the photo is covered with tussock and you can see it in the right middle part of the photo also.

In the next photo, the tussock goes on and on, blurring into a brown color.

Much of the tussock grassland was lost to farming, so there's a move on now to preserve the grasslands that remain.