Flora of New Zealand Series

Type species: D. montana Endl.

Slender, erect perennials, tufted at base, with wiry ± nodding culms. Leaf-sheath densely, minutely puberulous to glabrous. Ligule short, membranous, truncate. Leaf-blade rather stiff, flat; margins often inrolled, gradually tapered to acute tip. Culm much overtopping leaves at maturity, few-noded. Panicle contracted, densely branched, to open, with few lax branches. Spikelets 1-(rarely 3)-flowered; disarticulation above glumes. Glumes 1-(3)-nerved, unequal to subequal, <, or ≥ lemma, hyaline except for scaberulous midnerve, acute to acuminate to shortly aristate. Lemma 5-nerved, fusiform; awn long, flexuous, inserted below entire or minutely bifid tip, ± geniculate, column scarcely, or much twisted. Palea < lemma, hyaline, narrow, with 2 close-set scabrid keels. Callus very short, ringed by short hairs. Rachilla prolongation minute. Lodicules 2, oblong, nerveless, ± bidentate, glabrous or sparsely ciliate. Stamens 1, 3, or variably 1-3, very small in cleistogamous flowers; anthers sometimes penicillate. Ovary glabrous; styles apical, free to base; stigmas plumose. Caryopsis cylindric, beaked, adaxially longitudinally grooved; embryo minute; hilum subbasal, punctiform; endosperm liquid. Chasmogamous or cleistogamous.

c. 8 spp. of Australasia, New Guinea, Timor, Easter Id. Endemic sp. 1, indigenous spp. 3, shared with Australia; naturalised spp. 2 (from Australia). They are collectively known as plume grass.

N.Z. spp. were revised by Edgar, E. and Connor, H. E. N.Z. J. Bot. 20: 303-309 (1982); a new endemic species was added by Edgar, E. and Connor, H. E. N.Z. J. Bot. 37: 63-70 (1999). The genus was revised for Malesia by Veldkamp, J. F. Blumea 22: 5-12 (1974), and for Australia by Jacobs, S. W. L., McClay, K. L., and Simon, B. K. Telopea 5: 325-328, for Fl. N.S.W. 4: 582-584 (1993).