Class
Order
Family
Genus
Classification
Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Poa litorosa Cheeseman, Man. New Zealand Fl. 1156 (1906)
Synonymy:
- = Festuca scoparia Hook.f., Bot. Antarct. Voy. I. (Fl. Antarct.) Part I, 98 (1845)
- = Festuca scoparia var. β Hook.f., Bot. Antarct. Voy. I. (Fl. Antarct.) Part I, 99 (1845)
Description
Stiff, wiry, straw-coloured tussock, to 1.8 m, with acicular-tipped leaves overtopping culms; rhizome slender, from base of tufts; branching intravaginal; leaf-blades persistent. Leaf-sheath light green to straw-coloured to grey-brown, ± shining, coriaceous, distinctly ribbed, smooth or short-scabrid between ribs. Ligule 0.3–1 mm, a truncate ciliate rim, abaxially with a dense mat of minute hairs. Leaf-blade 10–65 cm, inrolled c. 1 mm diam., coriaceous, abaxially glabrous, adaxially with stiff short hairs; tip straight-sided, pungent. Culm 5–50 cm, erect, internodes usually very slightly scabrid just below panicle. Panicle (4.5)–6–15 cm, contracted, with few, short, erect, scabrid branches. Spikelets (7)–11–14 mm, 4–6–(7)-flowered, light green, glumes and lemmas brown-tipped. Glumes unequal, 3-nerved, narrow-lanceolate, subobtuse, ± scabrid above; lower (4)–5.5–7 mm, upper (5)–6–7.5 mm. Lemma (5.5)–6–7.5 mm, 5-nerved, elliptic-oblong, obtuse, short-scabrid, with hairs on lower ⅓ of mid-nerve and outer lateral nerves. Palea 5.5–6.5 mm, keels ciliate-scabrid, interkeel with minute hairs and prickle-teeth, tip bifid. Callus with narrow tuft of long crinkled hairs. Rachilla 1–1.5 mm, stiff-ciliate; prolongation twice as long. Lodicules 0.8–1.5 mm, occasionally hair-tipped. Anthers (2.5)–3–4 mm. Caryopsis c. 3 × 1 mm. 2n=c. 266.
[From: Edgar and Connor (2000) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 5 (second printing).]
Biostatus
Indigenous (Non-endemic)
Bibliography
Cheeseman, T.F. 1906: Manual of the New Zealand Flora. Government Printer, Wellington.
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. [Not Threatened]
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. [Not Threatened]
Edgar, E. 1986: Poa L. in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 24: 425–503.
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.
