- Taxon
- Gallery
- ≡ Agropyron scabrum var. tenue Buchanan, Indig. Grasses N. Zeal. add et corrig. t. 57 b, 11 (1880)
- ≡ Agropyron tenue (Buchanan) Connor, 35 Sect. B: 318 (1954)
- ≡ Elymus tenuis (Buchanan) Á.Löve & Connor, New Zealand J. Bot. 20: 183 (1982)
Prostrate flat, bronze-leaved stoloniferous open grass, rooting and shooting from nodes on stolons; branching extravaginal; upper culm internode greatly elongating after anthesis and the long weak culm trails along the ground. Leaf-sheath 5–7 cm, glabrous or sometimes retrorsely pilose. Ligule 0.25–0.3 mm, very finely ciliate. Collar glabrous, curved and thickened. Auricles ± 1 mm or smaller, clasping, with 1–2 long hairs. Leaf-blade 10–15 cm × 2 mm, bronzed, flat sometimes ± involute, abaxially glabrous, smooth, ribs evident, adaxially with short antrorse prickle-teeth; margins prickle-toothed. Culm to 2 m, slender, trailing along ground, upper internode elongating after flowering sometimes reaching 1.5 m. Inflorescence 10–15 cm, of up to 15 spikelets. Spikelets 25–40 mm, of 6–8 florets. Glumes 9–15 mm, produced into barbed awn up to 3 mm, 3-nerved, keeled; margins shortly toothed. Lemma 6–10 mm, smooth except for prickles on central nerve, near bifid apex and on margins below; awn 15–35 mm. Palea 7–10 mm, apex pointed and bifid. Rachilla 1.5–2.5 mm, short hairy. Callus 0.5 mm, surrounded by short hairs. Lodicules 1.5–1.7 mm, linear, irregularly hair tipped. Anthers 2–3 mm, yellow. Gynoecium: ovary 1.25–1.5 mm; stigma-styles 2–2.5 mm. Caryopsis 4.5–5 mm; embryo 1 mm. 2n= 56.
[From: Edgar and Connor (2000) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 5 as Elymus tenuis (Buchanan) Á.Löve et Connor]