Flora of New Zealand Series

; Holotype: CHR 98244! H. E. Connor Mt Longslip, Lindis Pass 4500 ft, 10.2.1958.

Glaucous tussock with scabrid leaves and tall culms bearing reflexed branches of large spikelets. Prophyll 2-3-(8) cm, keels antrorsely prickle-toothed, apex acute. Leaf-sheath 3-10 cm, glabrous, margins membranous; apical auricles 0.4-1.0 mm, ciliate, ≈ ligule. Leaf-blade 8-20-(30) cm × 0.5-0.9 mm diam., terete to ± hexagonal, abaxially with short (0.05 mm) antrorse prickle-teeth especially on ribs, adaxially and on margins with abundant longer (0.1 mm) white antrorse hairs; TS: 5 vascular bundles, 7 sclerenchyma strands or sometimes continuous. Culm 20-45-(80) cm, usually exserted high above leaves, nodes dark, evident, internodes smooth but sometimes antrorsely scabrid. Panicle (6)-8-13-(18) cm, erect with 6-8 nodes, 10-15-20 spikelets; branches solitary or often binate, naked below, pulvinate and reflexed, basal branch (1.5)-5-8 cm of 2-6 spikelets, uppermost 2-4 spikelets solitary on 2-4 mm pedicels; rachis margins prickle-toothed sometimes smooth below, branches and pedicels prickle-toothed on margins. Spikelets 10-16 mm × 4-6 mm, of 5-7 florets. Glumes unequal, keels sometimes prickle-toothed, centrally green, brown or reddish, margins ciliate; lower 3-5.5 mm, 1-nerved, upper 3.5-4.5-(6.5) mm, 3-nerved. Lemma (5)-6-7-(8) mm, 5-nerved, glaucous, keeled, smooth except for prickle-teeth at apex, margin antrorsely hairy; awn (1.0)-2-2.5-(3) mm. Palea 5-6-(7.5) mm, usually ≥ lemma, deeply (0.5 mm) bifid, keels toothed in upper ½ or more, interkeel hairs at apex, margins of flanks hairy above. Callus 0.2-0.3 mm, margin sparsely bearded; articulation ± oblique. Rachilla 1.0-1.5 mm, abundantly short stiff hairy. Lodicules 0.7-1.4 mm, usually hair-tipped. Anthers 3-4.2 mm, yellow to purple. Gynoecium: ovary 0.6-1.0 mm, hispid hairs at apex; stigma-styles 1.2-2.0 mm. Caryopsis 2-3 mm; embryo 0.5 mm; hilum ± 2.5 mm. 2 n = 42.

S.: Waitaki Basin and Central Otago. Tussock grasslands on hills and plains; 900-1500 m.

Endemic.

The leaf-blades of subsp. latifundii are as rough as those of subsp. aquilonia and of those of F. novae-zelandiae. The vesture of the rachis on CHR 98243 H. E. Connor Mt Longslip, Feb 1958, is primarily that of F. novae-zelandiae; the remainder of the specimen is typically F. matthewsii subsp. latifundii.