Flora of New Zealand Series

Chilean needle grass

Erect, strongly caespitose perennial with shoots swollen and close-set at base; branching intravaginal. Leaf-sheath to 5 cm, striate, densely pubescent at base, long hairs at apex, hairs sometimes forming a contra-ligule, elsewhere glabrous. Ligule ± 0.5 mm, flat-topped, finely and shortly ciliolate at apex or shallowly crenate. Leaf-blade to 40 cm × 5 mm, flat, scabrid, sometimes scattered long hairs abaxially, margins scabrid. Culm to 2 m, internodes smooth except for prickle-teeth below inflorescence, nodes appressed-pilose. Panicle to 30 cm, open; branches drooping, flexuous; rachis smooth to slightly scabrid, branches and pedicels stiff hairy. Glumes unequal, violet below, hyaline above, 3-nerved, nerves scabrid, produced into awn-like processes to 3 mm, < awn column; lower to 20 mm, margins long hairy, upper to 15 mm, glabrous. Lemma to 6 mm, tubercular-scabrid, median nerve long hairy, lobes minute; corona to 1 mm, violet or violet-suffused, glabrous, a conspicuous ring of spines to 1 mm at apex; awn to 70 mm, 1-geniculate; column tightly twisted and long hairy to 25 mm, then shallowly twisted and short stiff hairy to 15 mm above, arista scabrid, to 35 mm, usually intertwined with awns of adjacent florets. Palea 1.5 mm, membranous, glabrous. Callus to 4 mm, hairs to 4 mm. Lodicules 2, c. 1 mm, ≈ palea. Anthers penicillate, to 3.2 mm in chasmogamous flowers, reduced to 1 fertile, 0.5-0.7 mm, and 2 sterile, 0.1-0.2 mm, anthers in cleistogamous flowers.

N.: Waitakere Ranges, Waipawa; S.: Marlborough (near Blind River, Seddon, and Lake Grassmere). Roadsides and pastures.

Naturalised from South America.

Cleistogenes are formed at nodes towards the base of flowering culms. They are subtended by prophylls, and 1-3-flowered; glumes 2, awned, about half as long as in aerial florets; lower glume 1-3-nerved, upper to 7 nerves; lemma, corona, palea as in aerial florets; awn to 25 mm; callus ± 0.5 mm; anthers reduced to 1 fertile anther and 2 sterile small anthers; caryopsis round or planoconvex, to 4 mm. For frequencies see Connor et al. (1993 op. cit.).

Occasionally an aerial-type branch may be produced at the uppermost culm node, and so far as can be judged, remains ensheathed.

Locally troublesome [see Connor, H. E., Edgar, E. and Bourdôt, G. N.Z. J. Agric. Res. 36: 301-307 (1993)].

Specimens gathered at Auckland by M. Hodgkins (CHR 17437, CHR 18300) have long hairy leaf-blades, lemma nerves long hairy with the hairs on the main nerve reaching almost to the corona. These characters suggest a provenance different from the Marlborough plants.