- = Agrostis tenella Petrie, Trans. & Proc. New Zealand Inst. 22: 442 (1889 [1890])
Very slender, lax, perennial tufts, 15–35 cm, with long, very slender, spike-like panicles on slender culms much overtopping leaves; branching extravaginal. Leaf-sheath narrow, membranous, light creamish brown to reddish, glabrous, distinctly ribbed. Ligule 0.8–1.6 mm, obtuse, often erose, abaxially glabrous. Leaf-blade 2–13 cm × 0.2–0.4 mm diam., involute, filiform, flaccid, abaxially finely striate and, in young leaves, finely scabrid, later smooth, adaxially scabrid on ribs; margins scabrid, tip fine, blunt. Culm almost filiform, erect or geniculate at base, internodes glabrous. Panicle (2.5)–5–9 cm × 2–3 mm, contracted, extremely narrow-linear; rachis and few short erect branches and pedicels sparsely, finely scabrid, often pale purplish. Spikelets 1.5–2.4 mm, pale greenish purple to straw coloured. Glumes ± equal, lanceolate, minutely scabrid on keel and on margins near acute tip. Lemma 1.5–1.9 mm, at times ≈ glumes, glabrous, faintly 5-nerved, ovate-oblong, apex denticulate, awnless, or rarely a few lemmas subapically awned, awn straight, fine, up to 1 mm, scarcely projecting beyond glumes. Palea 0.1–0.2 mm, ovate. Lodicules 0.3–0.4 mm. Callus with few very minute hairs. Anthers 0.6–1 mm. Caryopsis 1–1.4 × 0.3 mm.
[From: Edgar and Connor (2000) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 5 (second printing).]