Class
Order
Family
Genus
Classification
Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Poa ramosissima Hook.f., Bot. Antarct. Voy. I. (Fl. Antarct.) Part I, 101 (1845)
Synonymy:
- = Poa ramosissima var. β Hook.f., Bot. Antarct. Voy. I. (Fl. Antarct.) Part I, 101 (1845)
Description
Bright green, soft, turfy perennial patches, from long, bare prostrate culms, distally becoming erect, leafy and much-branched; branching intravaginal; leaf-blades persistent. Leaf-sheath greenish brown to purplish, glabrous, hyaline, ribs prominent. Ligule (1.5)–2.5–4 mm, deeply and sharply lacerate, glabrous throughout. Leaf-blade (4)–9–15 cm × 1–2 mm, thin, weak, flat, ribs many, strong, minutely papillose-scabrid, adaxially furrowed, evenly narrowed to very finely obtuse or subobtuse tip; margins glabrous. Culm (1)–10–30–(40) cm, internodes glabrous. Panicle (2)–4–5–(10) cm, ± oblong, contracted, usually overtopped by leaves; rachis glabrous, branches erect, short, scarcely spreading, finely papillose-scabrid, bearing few spikelets. Spikelets 4.5–7.5 mm, 3–5-flowered, greenish brown, very minutely papillose-scabrid. Glumes subequal or the lower obviously shorter, both narrow-lanceolate, acute or acuminate; lower 2.5–4 mm, 1–3-nerved, upper 3–4.5 mm, 3-nerved. Lemma 3.8–5 mm, 5–(7)-nerved, elliptic, drawn out to acute or acuminate tip, mid- and lateral nerves with a few short hairs near base. Palea 2.5–4.5 mm, very narrow, keels with a few short hair-like prickle-teeth. Callus with small tufts of long, twisted hairs below midnerve of lemma and occasionally below lateral nerves. Rachilla 0.5–1 mm, glabrous. Lodicules 0.3–1 mm, occasionally hair-tipped. Gynomonoecious: each spikelet with 1–2 lower flowers ☿, anthers 1.5–2.5 mm, gynoecium c. 1.5 mm; upper flowers ♀ with minute colourless anthers 0.1–0.7 mm, gynoecium c. 1.5 mm. Caryopsis c. 1 × 0.5 mm. 2n= 28.
[From: Edgar and Connor (2000) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 5 (second printing).]
Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
Bibliography
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]
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.
