Flora of New Zealand Series

; Holotype: CHR 260294! A. P. Druce SE of Imjin Camp, Moawhango R., Kaimanawa Mts, 2700 ft, cliff in gorge, Jan 1974.

Dense tufts to 60 cm with culms often much overtopping the densely, very minutely scabrid leaves; branching intravaginal. Leaf-sheath 2-5-(8) cm, firmly membranous, grey-brown to light greenish brown, sometimes reddish, very densely minutely papillose or minutely scabrid to pubescent, sometimes glabrous. Ligule 0.8-1 mm, truncate, erose, sparsely finely ciliate. Collar sometimes with a few stiff hairs to 1.5 mm. Leaf-blade (3)-12-25-(30) cm × (0.5)-1-4 mm, folded with inrolled margins or flat, hard, dull green or reddish, abaxially scabrid with very dense minute prickle-teeth, or smooth, or sparsely scabrid above, adaxially ribbed with dense fine minute prickle-teeth or minutely densely pubescent on ribs; margins finely scabrid. Culm 10-40 cm, internodes glabrous or finely pubescent above, rarely pilose, or minutely prickle-toothed below panicle. Panicle 5-20 × 1-1.5-(3) cm, lanceolate, with short, inconspicuous branches, ± interrupted, not very dense, rarely more open, but spikelets clustered and individually inconspicuous; rachis, branches, and pedicels very densely minutely strigose or rarely puberulous. Spikelets 6-8 mm, light green often tinged reddish brown. Glumes unequal, membranous, keels with minute prickle-teeth in upper ½; lower c. ¾ length of upper, narrow oblong to narrow ovate, upper ¾ to ≈ spikelet, elliptic-oblong; margins broadly hyaline, sparsely prickle-toothed near acute to acuminate sometimes mucronate tip. Lemma 3.5-6 mm, bidentate or sometimes bicuspid, papillose, minutely prickle-toothed near midnerve; awn 3.5-7.5 mm, recurved, insertion in upper ¼ of lemma. Palea minutely prickle-toothed on keels almost throughout and on margins near tip. Callus hairs to 1 mm. Rachilla hairs to 2 mm. Lodicules 0.8-1.2 mm, glabrous. Anthers 0.8-1.5-(2) mm. Gynoecium: ovary c. 0.8 mm; stigma-styles c. 1.2 mm. Caryopsis 2.5-3 × 0.7-0.8 mm.

N.: eastern mountains, from Mt Wharekia, East Cape, to near Taihape, S.: north-west Nelson, eastern Marlborough from Waima River south to North Canterbury near Parnassus. On limestone and marble cliffs, occasionally on greywacke; 30-1500 m. FL Oct-Feb.

Endemic.

Trisetum drucei and sometimes T. antarcticum have intravaginal innovation shoots, a feature unusual for the genus.

In South Id the leaf-blades are often reddish and in both North and South Is the spikelets may be reddish tinged. Specimens from North Id often have long hairs at the leaf collar margins but in specimens from South Id collars are usually glabrous. In North Id leaf-blades have dense very minute prickle-teeth throughout; in South Id leaves are abaxially smooth to slightly scabrid near the tip with rather sparse prickle-teeth, and adaxially densely prickle-toothed on the ribs or very densely shortly pubescent.