The high country does not do soft. Soft things get blown away. Hard tussock is a dense, tufted grass with stiff, narrow leaves. One of the most common tussock grasses in New Zealand's high country. The leaves are rolled and wiry, dark green to grey-green, with a rough texture. The flower heads are slender and narrow, held on tall stalks above the leaves. Built like a dropped toolbox. The plant is very hardy, tolerating cold, wind and snow. It grows in montane and subalpine grasslands, often forming extensive tussocklands. The dense tufts provide habitat for native insects and lizards, offering shelter from wind and predators. A grass that builds houses for others. Hard tussock is an important component of New Zealand's tussock grasslands. It dominates large areas of the South Island's high country, from Marlborough to Southland. The tussocklands are a distinctive feature of the landscape, rolling across the hillsides like a green-grey sea. A sea that does not move. A sea that rustles in the wind. The leaves were used by Māori for thatching and for making brooms (rahurahu). The stiff leaves were bundled together to make brushes for sweeping. A grass that cleans up after itself. To walk through a hard tussock grassland is to see the high country at its most open. The tussocks roll across the hillsides, their stiff leaves rustling in the wind. It is a landscape of space and sky, of cold winters and short summers. The hard tussock is the backbone of this landscape, the grass that holds the hills together. The wind does not stop. The snow does not ask permission. The hard tussock does not complain. It just holds on. No one told it otherwise.