Flora of New Zealand Series

Lolium perenne × Schedonorus phoenix

Tall, openly caespitose sometimes ± rhizomatous naturally occurring hybrid. Leaf-sheath glabrous. Branching intravaginal and extravaginal. Ligule 1-1.5 mm. Auricles stiff, 1 or 2, clasping, hairs few or glabrous. Leaf-blade c. 30 cm × 4 mm, multiribbed, midrib conspicuous, adaxially finely prickle-toothed, abaxially shining and smooth, margins prickle-toothed. Culm 50-70 cm, ribbed, nodes and internodes glabrous. Panicle 12-20-(30) cm, strict of 10-20 nodes, branches binate, the longer with up to 5 spikelets or more the shorter with 1 spikelet though sometimes > 1, uppermost 5-8 with solitary spikelets; rachis and branches prickle-toothed on margins. Spikelets 10-20 mm of 4-8 florets. Glumes unequal; lower 4-6 mm, 3-nerved, upper 5-8 mm, 5-nerved of which 1-3 are usually prominent. Lemma 6-8.5 mm, 5-nerved, rounded, small prickle-teeth scattered throughout, denser laterally below and on membranous margins; apex with hyaline lobes, awnless or awn to 3 mm. Palea 6-7.5 mm, apex bifid, ciliate, keels finely toothed almost to base, interkeel hairs few at apex. Callus 0.25 mm, glabrous. Rachilla 1-1.5 mm, short finely stiff hairy. Lodicules 1-2 mm, deeply lobed, sometimes twice-lobed; glabrous. Anthers 2.5-3 mm, caudate, sometimes malformed. Gynoecium: ovary c. 1 mm, apex glabrous; stigma-styles c. 2 mm.

N.; S. Occasionally where parent species co-occur.

Teratological flowers may occur e.g., twin gynoecia, three stigma-styles.

Somewhat variable especially in the inflorescence and its components; the genetic composition of the parents and the ecological conditions both influence appearance. Although Schedonorus phoenix itself may be awned, Lolium multiflorum is evidently awned, and longer awned florets in hybrids may reflect the incorporation of genes from L. multiflorum; the intergeneric S. phoenix × L. multiflorum lacks a formal name according to Holub (1998 op. cit. p. 112). The nothogenus ×Schedolium Holub in N.Z. appears to involve S. phoenix only, but the hybrid may combine genomes from commercial cultivars of Lolium in which both L. multiflorum and L. perenne genes are present (vide supra  Lolium). It may be simpler to refer all hybrids to ×Schedolium holmbergii; where greater precision is warranted the alternative form of hybrid nomenclature may be desirable viz Lolium multiflorum × Schedonorus phoenix if certainty is established.