Classification
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Chionochloa antarctica (Hook.f.) Zotov, New Zealand J. Bot. 1: 99 (1963)
Synonymy:
  • Bromus antarcticus Hook.f., Bot. Antarct. Voy. I. (Fl. Antarct.) Part I, 97, t. 54 (1845)
  • Danthonia antarctica (Hook.f.) Hook.f., Bot. Antarct. Voy. II. (Fl. Nov.-Zel.) Part I, 302 (1853)
  • = Danthonia flavescens var. hookeri Zotov, Trans. Roy. Soc. New Zealand 73: 234 (1943)
 Description

Tall, slender, often peat-stained, pale tussock with pungent leaves often spirally twisting above and deciduous. Leaf-sheath to 20 cm, dark above, pale shining below, persistent, glabrous though often with many very short hairs between ribs. Ligule to 2 mm. Leaf-blades to 30 cm × 6 mm, flat or U-shaped, disarticulating at ligule, abaxially many glabrous ribs, adaxially below with interlocking hairs from near margins, abundant papillae above; margin glabrous. Culm to 1 m, internodes glabrous. Inflorescence to 15 cm, congested, ± triangular, glabrous except for long hairs at branch axils and below spikelets. Spikelets of up to 7 lightly purpled florets. Glumes sometimes purpled, acute or shortly awned, < adjacent lemma lobes; lower to 12 mm, 1-nerved or shortly 3-nerved, upper to 15 mm, 3–5-nerved, margin consistently long hairy below otherwise glabrous. Lemma to 8 mm; hairs dense at margin and aside central nerve, sometimes in other internerves but then fewer, ± reaching sinus; lateral lobes to 7 mm including awn to 3 mm or long triangular-acute; central awn to 20 mm reflexed from flat column up to 3 mm. Palea to 10 mm. Callus to 1 mm, hairs to 3 mm. Rachilla to 1 mm. Lodicules to 0.75 mm. Anthers to 3.5 mm. Gynoecium: ovary to 0.75 mm; stigma-styles to 4 mm. Caryopsis to 2.5 mm. 2n= 42. Plate 1A.

[From: Edgar and Connor (2000) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 5 (second printing).]

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
 Bibliography
Connor, H.E. 1991: Chionochloa Zotov (Gramineae) in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 29: 219–283.
de Lange, P.J.; Norton, D.A.; Courtney, S.P.; Heenan, P.B.; Barkla, J.W.; Cameron, E.K.; Hitchmough, R.; Townsend, A.J. 2009: Threatened and uncommon plants of New Zealand (2008 revision). New Zealand Journal of Botany 47: 61–96. [Naturally uncommon]
de Lange, P.J.; Norton, D.A.; Heenan, P.B.; Courtney, S.P.; Molloy, B.P.J.; Ogle, C.C.; Rance, B.D. 2004: Threatened and uncommon plants of New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 42(1): 45–76.
de Lange, P.J.; Rolfe, J.R.; Barkla J.W.; Courtney, S.P.; Champion, P.D.; Perrie, L.R.; Beadel, S.N.; Ford, K.A.; Breitwieser, I.; Schönberger, I.; Hindmarsh-Walls, R.; Heenan, P.B.; Ladley, K. 2018: Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2017. New Zealand Threat Classification Series. No. 22. [Naturally Uncommon]
de Lange, P.J.; Rolfe, J.R.; Champion, P.D.; Courtney, S.P.; Heenan, P.B.; Barkla, J.W.; Cameron, E.K.; Norton, D.A.; Hitchmough, R.A. 2013: Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2012. New Zealand Threat Classification Series 3. Department of Conservation, Wellington. [Naturally Uncommon]
Hooker, J.D. 1844–1845: The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage of H.M. Discovery Ships Erebus and Terror in the Years 1839–1843, under the command of Captain Sir James Clark Ross. I. Flora Antarctica. Part I. Botany of Lord Auckland’s Group and Campbell’s Island. Reeve, Brothers, London.
Hooker, J.D. 1852–1853 ("1853"): The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage of H.M. Discovery Ships Erebus and Terror in the Years 1839–1843, under the command of Captain Sir James Clark Ross. II. Flora Novae-Zelandiae. Part I. Flowering plants. Lovell Reeve, London.
Zotov, V.D. 1943: Certain Changes in the Nomenclature of New Zealand Species of Gramineae. Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand 73: 233–238.
Zotov, V.D. 1963: Synopsis of the grass subfamily Arundinoideae in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 1: 78–136.