Flora of New Zealand Series

Smooth soft to stiff green or glaucous tufted or occasionally shortly stoloniferous grass with long wide-angled inflorescences of evidently awned florets held high above hexagonal leaf-blades from swollen collars. Branching intravaginal. Prophyll 2-6 cm, brown, chartaceous, keels stiffly ciliate. Leaf-sheath (3)-9-11 cm, glabrous, keeled centrally, ridged elsewhere, much wider than leaf-blade, stramineous, margins becoming membranous; apical auricles 0.6-1.5 mm, rounded, shortly ciliate. Ligule as for auricles. Collar conspicuously thickened. Leaf-blade 10-20-(30) cm × 0.5-0.8 mm diam., hexagonal rarely circular, ribbed, abaxially glabrous except scabrid tip rarely minutely scabrid elsewhere, adaxially and on margins abundant short, white hairs; TS: 5 vascular bundles, 7 widely spaced sclerenchyma strands, rarely fewer, costal sclerenchyma very rare. Culm 25-45-(100) cm, usually » leaves, nodes often geniculate below, uppermost node conspicuous, black, internodes smooth, often slightly scabrid below inflorescence node. Panicle (7)-10-20 cm, with (5)-7-10 nodes, of 15-30-(50) spikelets, open with pulvinate widely divergent often flexible branches which may contract, basal branches 2-6-(10) cm solitary or occasionally binate, with 3-4-(5) spikelets, naked below, branches becoming progressively shorter and uppermost 3-4 spikelets solitary on short pedicels; rachis, branches and pedicels prickle-toothed to sparsely so becoming smooth or almost so. Spikelets (9)-14-20 mm × 3-4-5 mm wide, stramineous or sometimes bronze or slightly purpled, of (4)-5-8 florets. Glumes unequal, keeled, centrally green to stramineous occasionally with purpled veins, long triangular acute to obtuse, apex ciliate; lower (3)-4.5-6 mm, l-nerved, upper (3.5)-4-6-(8) mm, 3-(5)-nerved. Lemma 5-8-(9) mm, lobes 0 or very small, rounded on back becoming keeled above, prickle-teeth below on outer nerve and on margin, and above near awn; awn (1)-2.5-3-(4) mm. Palea 4.5-6.7-(9) mm, frequently < lemma, long acute, deeply (0.5-1.0 mm) bifid, keels prickle-toothed to base or almost so, interkeel hairs mostly in upper ⅓, margins of flanks ciliate above sometimes to base. Callus 0.2-0.4 mm, centrally glabrous very shortly bearded laterally; articulation oblique to ± flat. Rachilla 1-1.6 mm, short stiff hairy. Lodicules (0.6)-1.0-1.5 mm, ≥ ovary, often lobed, frequently hair-tipped. Anthers (2.0)-3-4.0 mm, yellow or yellow and purpled. Gynoecium: ovary 0.6-1.0 mm, hispid hairs at apex; stigma-styles 1.5-2.5 mm. Caryopsis 3-4 mm; embryo 0.5-0.75 mm; hilum 2 mm.

S.: east and west of Main Divide from Waiau River, Canterbury, to Fiordland, occasional in Marlborough. Tussock grasslands; 500-1500 m.

Endemic.

The spikelets of the lectotype of F. matthewsii, and its duplicate, are 15-17 mm. Spikelets of these dimensions are found especially in Fiordland, occasionally in Otago and Westland, and uncommonly elsewhere. Some examples are: CHR 25033 G. Simpson McKinnon Pass; CHR 64090 W. A. Thompson Hollyford Valley; CHR 253921 P. N. Johnson Hopkins Valley; CHR 3926 H. H. Allan Fox Glacier; WELT 16101 W. R. B. Oliver Mt Moltke; WELT 68656 [B.C. Aston] George Sound.

Among specimens from Westland there are fine-leaved plants of slender stature, e.g., CHR 166832 P. Wardle & I. R. Fryer Mt Fox; CHR 185639 P. Wardle & I. R. Fryer Mt Arthur; CHR 195178 P. Wardle Pioneer Peak. Here the impression, too, is that spikelets are smaller than elsewhere but the range 10-17 mm is equal to that in Fiordland (11-18 mm), and Otago (10-19 mm), though the frequency may be higher in the modal range 11-14 mm.