Deschampsia cespitosa (L.) P.Beauv.
≡Aira cespitosa L. Sp. Pl. 64 (1753);
Holotype: LINN n.v. (microfiche!), Europe.
=A. australis Raoul Choix Pl. Nouv.-Zél. 12 (1846);
Holotype: P n.v., Raoul Akaroa.
=Deschampsia penicillata Kirk, T.N.Z.I. 27: 354 (1895);
Holotype: WELT 69438! A. Hamilton Macquarie Id., [1894?].
=D. cespitosa var. macrantha Hack. in Cheeseman Man. N.Z. Fl. 876 (1906);
Lectotype: W 26864! T. F. C[heeseman] Clarence Valley, Nelson Alps, 2000 ft (No 1192 to Hackel) (here designated).
tufted hair grass
Stiff, yellow-green, sometimes bluish green leafy tufts or strong tussocks, 30-120 cm, with rigid panicles on erect culms often well overtopping leaves. Leaf-sheath subcoriaceous, keeled, glabrous, faintly ribbed. Ligule 2.5-7 mm, striate, sometimes almost keeled, acute. Leaf-blade (3)-5-45 cm × 2-3.5 mm, flat, stiff, sometimes folded or inrolled, abaxially smooth and shining, adaxially ribbed, ribs scabrid, tip acute, subpungent. Culm erect, or slightly geniculate at base, internodes glabrous. Panicle (3)-10-30 cm, ± erect, lax at anthesis, bearing spikelets near branchlet tips, later more contracted; rachis and branches sparsely to moderately, finely scabrid. Spikelets (3.5)-4-7 mm, yellow-green to brownish or purplish. Glumes ± equal, slightly overtopping or equalling florets, rarely overtopped by florets in 3-flowered spikelets, acute, keel often very sparsely scabrid; lower 1-nerved, upper 3-nerved. Lemma (2.3)-3-5 mm, oblong, often sparsely scabrid above, apex 4-toothed, margins in upper ½ finely scabrid; awn (0.5)-1-4 mm, fine, straight, minutely scabrid, insertion middorsal or ± basal or rarely in upper ⅓, slightly overtopping or ± reaching lemma apex, occasionally ± appressed to lemma and not reaching apex. Palea narrower than lemma, apex bifid, keels and margins in upper ½ finely scabrid. Callus hairs to 1.5 mm. Rachilla hairs to 2 mm, dense, silky. Anthers (0.8)-1.2-2.2 mm. Gynoecium: ovary c. 0.8 mm; stigma-styles c. 1.5 mm. Caryopsis 1.2-1.6 × 0.4-0.7 mm. 2 n = 26.
N.: Volcanic Plateau; S.: scattered in southern half, especially along Main Divide and to west, rare in Marlborough and Nelson; St.; Ch., A., M. Lowland to subalpine in damp ground in grassland, margins of lakes or tarns, or in coastal swamps, sometimes on rock.
Indigenous.
Plants on Macquarie Id form small stoloniferous tufts rather than coarse tussocks, their spikelets resemble those of plants of D. cespitosa from southern South Id and South Georgia except in size of all parts, and no polliniferous specimens have been seen [Edgar, E. Poaceae, Fl. Australia 50: 468 (1993)].
Cosmopolitan, from temperate and cold (including arctic and subantarctic) regions; a very polymorphic sp.
Cheeseman's (1906 op. cit. p. 876) comment that N.Z. plants differ from Northern Hemisphere specimens in the larger spikelets and higher awn insertion cannot be upheld; the range in spikelet length in N.Z. specimens falls within those given for D. cespitosa in European flora treatments and awn insertion varies from near basal to middorsal or above as in D. cespitosa sens. lat. from the Northern Hemisphere. Cheeseman merely noted that the New Zealand form was distinguished by Hackel as var. macrantha. He did not give a translation of Hackel's Latin diagnosis of this variety (in litt. to Cheeseman 30-7-1902) as he customarily did for those of Hackel's new varieties published in Man. N.Z. Fl., see Edgar, E. and Connor, H. E. N.Z. J. Bot. 25: 455-457 (1987).
Deschampsia cespitosa is now exceedingly rare in North and South Is because of browsing pressure (P. J. de Lange in litt.).
The features on which Hackel based var. macrantha are insufficiently distinct and the variety is here treated as a synonym of D. cespitosa.
The name Triodia splendida Steud., Syn. Pl. Glum. 1: 249 (1854) based on a specimen from "N. Zeelandia" was referred to D. cespitosa by Buchanan, J. Indig. Grasses. N.Z. t. 37 (1879). No specimens have been seen.
LECTOTYPIFICATION
The three specimens of D. cespitosa (Nos 1192-1194) sent by Cheeseman to Hackel are at W and determined in Hackel's hand as var. macrantha. W 26864 (No 1192 to Hackel) is designated lectotype because it most closely matches Hackel's Latin diagnosis (in litt. to Cheeseman, 30.7.1902). The panicle is ± contracted and spikelets 5-6 mm; in the other two specimens the panicle is slightly more open and spikelets 4-5 mm.
