Classification
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Rytidosperma pumilum (Kirk) Connor & Edgar, New Zealand J. Bot. 25: 166 (1987)
Synonymy:
  • Atropis pumila Kirk, Trans. New Zealand Inst. 14: 379 (1882)
  • Triodia pumila (Kirk) Hack in Cheeseman, Man. New Zealand Fl. 896 (1906)
  • Erythranthera pumila (Kirk) Zotov, New Zealand J. Bot. 1: 124 (1963)
  • = Danthonia kirkii Zotov, Trans. Roy. Soc. New Zealand 73: 234 (1943)
 Description

Stiff, slender, bright green, usually low-growing tufts; leaves setaceous, « to sometimes = culms, disarticulating at ligule; branching intravaginal. Leaf-sheath green to purple-tinged, later whitish, not much wider than leaf-blade, glabrous, or with scattered long fine hairs; apical tuft of hairs to 1.5 mm, sometimes very minute. Ligule to 0.4 mm. Leaf-blade to 8 cm, setaceous, usually glabrous, rarely a few long fine hairs near base. Culm 1.5–25 cm, internodes smooth but finely scabrid just below inflorescence. Panicle to 3–(4) cm, shortly branched below, racemose above, of few, comparatively large, narrow spikelets; rachis and pedicels scabrid, with some short hairs on pedicels. Spikelets (3)–4–6–(8)-flowered, glumes enclosing florets. Glumes usually purplish at centre, sometimes with darker horizontal blotches, usually narrow-lanceolate, ± acute, but often shorter, more ovate and subobtuse, ± equal, (2.5)–3.5–6.5–(8.5) mm; lower 3–5-nerved, upper 3-nerved. Lemma 1.5–2.2 mm, 5–7-nerved, ovate, scattered hairs on upper ½, sometimes an obvious marginal hair tuft on either side about the level of rachilla apex, occasionally almost glabrous or at times more densely hairy with two pairs of marginal tufts and ± distinct upper and lower row of hairs, with hairs scattered between rows and a row of hairs along either margin, tip notched, mucro 0.1–0.2–(0.9) mm in notch, sometimes a shorter mucro on either lateral lobe beside notch. Palea 1.4–2 mm, < lemma, interkeel glabrous. Callus 0.1–0.3 mm, glabrous, or, in lemma with well-developed hairs, thick marginal hair tufts to 0.5 mm overlapping lemma hairs. Rachilla 0.4–0.7 mm. Anthers 0.2–0.6 mm. Caryopsis 0.7–1 × 0.3–0.5 mm; embryo 0.4–0.6 mm; hilum 0.1–0.3 mm.

[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.
Connor, H. E.; Edgar, E. 1979: Rytidosperma Steudel (Notodanthonia Zotov) in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 17: 311–337.
Connor, H.E.; Edgar, E. 1987: Name changes in the indigenous New Zealand flora, 1960–1986 and Nomina Nova IV, 1983–1986. New Zealand Journal of Botany 25: 115–170.
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]
Kirk, T. 1882: Notice of the Occurrence of Triodia and Atropis in New Zealand with Descriptions of new species. Transactions of the New Zealand Institute 14: 378–379.
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.