Spartina ×townsendii H.Groves & J.Groves
S. alterniflora × S.maritima
spartina
Stiff perennials 10-50 cm, with fleshy rhizomes forming dense clumps or swards. Leaf-sheath glabrous. Ligule 1-2 mm, densely ciliate. Leaf-blade 5-35 cm × 4-10 mm, persistent or caducous, coriaceous, flat or inrolled, glabrous, adaxially ribbed, narrowed to fine hard tip. Culm erect, 3-8 mm diam. near base including closely ensheathing leaves. Panicle 8-30 cm, erect, contracted; spikes 2-5-(14), 4-15-(18) cm; rachis of each spike glabrous, tipped by bristle 1.5-3.5 cm. Spikelets 10-20 mm, narrowly oblong, 1-flowered, minutely hairy. Glumes unequal, oblong-lanceolate, acute, finely hairy; lower ⅔-¾ length of upper and much narrower, 1-nerved, upper = spikelet, 1-3-nerved. Lemma < upper glume, 1-3-nerved, oblong-lanceolate, minutely hairy. Palea ≥ lemma, hyaline, glabrous. Anthers 5-8 mm, very narrow, shrivelled, indehiscent, with sterile pollen. Caryopsis not developed.
N.: North Auckland (Helensville, Waitemata Harbour), South Auckland (Tauranga), Wellington (Foxton); S.: Invercargill. In estuaries, especially around mid-tide.
Naturalised from England.
The natural sterile hybrid S. ×townsendii (S. alterniflora × S. maritima) arose at Hythe, near Southampton, England, about 1870. In N.Z. Partridge (1987 op. cit.) found that S. ×townsendii is now very rare with the only recently verified stand being at Te Atatu, Waitemata Harbour, Auckland.
