Deschampsia pusilla Petrie
; Lectotype: WELT 69433! D. P[etrie] Hector Mts, 6000 ft [Feb 1890] (here designated).
Compact, leafy tufts, 2-4.5 cm, leaves often reaching to base of panicle. Leaf-sheath wider than leaf-blade, firmly membranous, light brownish grey, rounded, ribs few, inconspicuous. Ligule (1.5)-2-3.5 mm, tapered to acute tip. Leaf-blade 5.5-17 × 0.3-0.5 mm, involute, smooth; margins finely scabrid, tip subobtuse. Culm 1.2-2.5-(4) cm, branched at base, often almost completely hidden among leaves, internodes glabrous. Panicle (5)-8.5-18 mm, ± compact; branches few, sparsely, minutely scabrid. Spikelets 2.2-3 mm, greenish, shining. Glumes ± equal and equalling spikelets, keels sparsely scabrid above, tip subacute to acute to almost mucronate; lower 1-nerved, narrow-lanceolate, upper 3-nerved, elliptic-lanceolate. Lemma 1.5-2.2 mm, faintly 5-nerved, oblong, 4-5-toothed with short terminal mucro, 0.3-0.5 mm, in notch. Palea ≤ lemma, apex deeply bifid, keels finely scabrid. Callus hairs c. 0.2 mm. Rachilla hairs c. 0.2 mm, fine, or 0. Anthers (0.3)-0.5-0.6 mm. Caryopsis c. 1 × 0.4 mm. Cleistogamus.
S.: Central Otago on Hector and Humboldt Mts, Pisa Range, Remarkables, Garvie and Umbrella Mts. Alpine.
Endemic.
Mature culms had elongated to 10 cm in CHR 394440 A. P. Druce Gem L[ake] area, Umbrella Mts, 4700 ft, March 1986.
LECTOTYPIFICATION
Of the 4 specimens of D. pusilla at WELT collected by Petrie from the Hector Mts, WELT 69433 was designated lectotype because it was from Petrie;s private herbarium and annotated "type".
