Puccinellia fasciculata (Torr.) E.P.Bicknell
salt grass
Perennial, yellowish green or glaucous tufts, (3)-10-65 cm, with culms often much overtopping leaves; branching intravaginal. Leaf-sheath glabrous, subcoriaceous, greyish to straw-coloured. Ligule 0.5-1.5-(2) mm, truncate to rounded, or shortly tapered. Leaf-blade (3)-5-12 cm × (1.5)-2-3.5 mm, flat or folded, abaxially glabrous, adaxially shallowly ribbed, ribs scaberulous; margins scaberulous, tip hooded. Culm 15-40 cm, erect or spreading, internodes glabrous. Panicle (1.5)-4-15 × 0.4-5-(7) cm, lanceolate, or narrow-oblong to ovate, usually contracted, sometimes more open; branches scabrid, all, or at least the shortest, bearing densely clustered spikelets to the base. Spikelets 3.5-5.5 mm, (3)-4-5-(8)-flowered, greyish green, often purple tinged. Glumes ± unequal, elliptic to ovate, obtuse to subacute, midnerve often finely scabrid above, apex minutely ciliate; lower 0.7-1.5-(1.8) mm, 1-nerved, upper 1.2-2 mm, 3-nerved. Lemma 1.7-2.6 mm, 5-nerved, with short hairs at base and on lateral nerves for a short distance above base or sometimes on lower half, elliptic-oblong, apex subobtuse, minutely ciliate, midnerve minutely scabrid near lemma apex, often minutely excurrent Palea ˜ lemma, apex shallowly bifid, keels ciliate-scabrid in upper ½ -⅔. Rachilla 0.4-0.8 mm. Anthers 0.5-0.9 mm. Caryopsis 1.2-1.5 × 0.4-0.6 mm.
N.: Gisborne (Wherowhero Lagoon), Hawkes Bay (lagoons near Wairoa, near Napier); S.: scattered on the eastern coast from Christchurch to Invercargill; inland in North and Central Otago; St. Mud flats and salt marsh at sea level; inland in salt pans, 100-600 m.
Naturalised.
Indigenous to North America and Europe.
Allan and Jansen (1939 op. cit.) treated all N.Z. plants of P. fasciculata as indigenous; either their var. novozelandica, from the Otago coast between Waikouaiti and Dunedin, or var. caespitosa from "alkali patches" in Central Otago. Further collecting reveals that plants growing inland in Central Otago cannot be delimited from P. fasciculata growing elsewhere.
Allan and Jansen (1939 op. cit. p. 268) described two varieties of P. fasciculata based on New Zealand plants; their species P. scott-thomsonii was also described from New Zealand plants of P. fasciculata (Edgar 1996 op. cit. p. 29). No status is accorded to the following taxa; all are regarded as synonyms of P. fasciculata.
P. fasciculata var. novozelandica Allan et Jansen, T.R.S.N.Z. 69: 268 (1939); Lectotype: L 956.180 097 (Herb. Jansen et Wachter 44765)! J. Scott Thomson Tomahawk Lagoon, near Dunedin, South Island, Jan 1936 (designated by Edgar 1996 op. cit. p. 29).
P. fasciculata var. caespitosa Allan et Jansen, T.R.S.N.Z. 69: 268 (1939); Lectotype: WELT 68537! D. Petrie Chatto Creek, Manuherikia Plain, Vincent Co., Otago, 30 Dec 1910 (designated by Edgar 1996 op. cit. p. 29).
P. scott-thomsonii Allan et Jansen, T.R.S.N.Z. 69: 267 (1939) ≡P. fasciculata var. scott-thomsonii (Allan et Jansen) Zotov, T.R.S.N.Z. 73: 236 (1943); Lectotype: CHR 17120! J. S. Thomson Waikouaiti, 29 Dec 1935 (designated by Edgar 1996 op. cit. p. 29).
