Elymus enysii (Kirk) Á.Löve & Connor
≡Agropyron enysii Kirk, T.N.Z.I. 27: 359 (1895)
≡Asprella aristata Petrie, T.N.Z.I. 26: 272 (1894) non Kuntze (1891)
≡Agropyron aristatum Cheeseman, Illus. Fl. N.Z. 2: t. 234 (1914) nom. superfl.;
Lectotype: WELT 68390! D. Petrie Mt Torlesse, Canterbury Alps, c. 3600 ft, Jan 1893 (designated by Connor 1994 op. cit. p. 131).
Small tufted or open, bronze flat-leaved grass rooting and shooting at nodes on stolons; culm slender and drooping, inflorescence often hidden in tussocks; branching extravaginal. Leaf-sheath 6-8 cm, long hairs retrorse or erect or pubescent; lobed at apex. Ligule 0.5-0.75 mm, erose, sometimes triangular. Collar slightly curved and thickened. Auricles small (0.75 mm), or minute. Leaf-blade 20 cm × 2-4 mm, flat, soft, abaxially densely retrorsely long hairy on and between ribs or glabrous, adaxially antrorsely prickle-toothed together with long hairs; margin prickle-toothed. Culm 25-80 cm, nodes few, ± geniculate below, internodes smooth or very slightly scabrid; upper internode elongating after flowering, sometimes reaching 60 cm. Inflorescence 5-13 cm, compact, of 10-18 spikelets. Spikelets 10-16 mm, shining, of 3-4 florets. Glumes ± equal, narrow, 6-9 mm, 1-3-nerved, scabrid, asymmetrically keeled, becoming awn-like, margin prickle-toothed. Lemma 7-10 mm, > palea, glaucous, glabrous except for prickle-teeth on nerves above; apex bifid; awn 1-3.5 mm; conspicuously indented at base. Palea 6-9 mm, keels toothed almost to base, apex shallowly bifid. Rachilla 1-2 mm, minutely stiff hairy. Callus 0.25 mm blunt, surrounded by minute hairs; disarticulation almost flat. Lodicules 1-1.25 mm, few apical hairs. Anthers 1.8-3 mm, yellow. Gynoecium: ovary 1.5 mm; stigma-styles 2-2.25 mm. Caryopsis 6 mm; embryo 1 mm. 2 n = 28.
S.: Nelson, eastern Marlborough and Canterbury east of Main Divide. Flushed places in tussock grasslands; 850-1675 m.
Endemic.
