Flora of New Zealand Series

; Holotype: CHR 401623! A. P. Druce Motueka R., (L[eft] Branch) Gordon Ra., 740 m, river terrace, mineral belt (dry site), Jan 1985.

Rather open tufts to 50 cm, with dull green, narrow, inrolled leaves overtopped by narrow to ± lax, usually purplish panicles; branching extravaginal. Leaf-sheath 1-3 cm, densely softly pubescent, with longer scattered hairs on sheaths of culm-leaves, and sometimes on margins. Ligule 0.4-0.8 mm, erose, minutely ciliate. Leaf-blade 2-16 cm, usually inrolled and < 1 mm diam., rarely flat and up to 2 mm wide, sometimes with scattered long hairs, abaxially smooth or with very minute prickle-teeth, adaxially shallowly ribbed with scattered very fine prickle-teeth on ribs; margins minutely prickle-toothed, sometimes with scattered long hairs. Culm 8-34-(40) cm, slender, internodes with long fine hairs above nodes and a small band of shorter hairs below nodes, uppermost internode glabrous. Panicle 2-10 × 0.5-2 cm, narrow-lanceolate to somewhat open, with visible rachis and short, ascending to spreading branches bearing clustered spikelets; rachis and branches with moderately dense, fine prickle-teeth and often a few longer hairs at lower nodes of rachis and at base of panicle. Spikelets 4-6.5 mm, often purplish. Glumes unequal, with sparse short prickle-teeth on keel; lower ⅔-¾ length of upper, oblong-lanceolate, upper < to ≈ spikelet, elliptic-lanceolate; margins with very few minute prickle-teeth near acute to acuminate tip. Lemma 3-4.5 mm, bicuspid, minutely papillose; awn 3-4 mm, ± recurved, insertion in upper ¼ of lemma. Palea minutely prickle-toothed on keels and margins. Callus hairs c. 0.2 mm. Rachilla hairs to 0.8 mm. Lodicules to 1 mm, glabrous. Anthers to 1.5 mm. Gynoecium: ovary to 0.8 mm; stigma-styles to 1 mm. Caryopsis not seen.

N.: North Cape at Surville Cliffs; S.: north-west Nelson, Cobb and Takaka Valleys, east Nelson, Dun Mt and Richmond Forest Park; Marlborough, Wairau Valley, Upper Motueka Valley. Open ground in short-tussock grassland or on river terraces, on ultramafic soil or rock; 600-1200 m. FL Dec-Jan.

Endemic.

One specimen from Red Hills, Wairau Valley, CHR 387495 A. P. Druce Dec 1980, is much taller than the rest, the single culm being 57 cm and the panicle 16.5 cm. The spikelets are 6-6.5 mm, lemmas 5-5.5 mm, awns to 5 mm, and anthers c. 2 mm.