Zoysia pauciflora Mez
=Z. planifolia Zotov, N.Z. J. Bot. 9: 641 (1972);
Holotype: CHR 68413! T. J. M. Wordley Northern Wairoa, Northland, hillside, 14.11.1949.
; Lectotype: WELT 68500! D. Petrie Opotiki, Dec. 1903, Herb. L. Cockayne 2315. Duplicate of original at B destroyed in World War II [designated by Chase, A. and Niles, C. D. Index to Grass Species (1962)].
Rhizome stout, long, 1-1.5 mm diam., shining, light brown; cataphylls smooth, grey or whitish; shoots 10-15 cm, branching several times intravaginally at or above ground. Leaf-sheath shining, white below, purplish above, striate, margins membranous, wide, glabrous. Ligule 0.2-0.3 mm, ciliate. Collar hairs few to many, 2-4 mm, rarely glabrous. Leaf-blade to 10 cm, divergent to erect, folded to flat and 1-2-4 mm wide, abaxially smooth, adaxially finely scabrid on ribs or glabrous; margins thickened, sparsely scabrid, tip blunt. Culm 3-10 cm, terete to laterally compressed, ridged, glabrous, bearing 1 leaf or leaf reduced to sheath, and a minute bract above. Raceme 0.5-2 cm, of (1)-2-5-9 lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, imbricate, spikelets c. 1-1.5 mm wide, frequently congested, rachis and pedicels flattened, scabrid on edges. Glumes indurated, lower glume if present a reduced bract, upper glume 4-6-(7) mm, minutely hairy above and on margins, ± golden ochreous often tinged pinkish at first, nerves 7 very weak; awn 0.5-2-(5) mm, scabrid. Lemma 3-3.75 mm, ovate-lanceolate, 1-nerved, firm-hyaline, glabrous. Palea 2.75-3.5 mm, transparent. Anthers c. 2-2.6 mm, apiculate, filaments ligulate. Gynoecium: ovary 0.75-1 mm; stigma-styles 3.5-5 mm. Caryopsis 1.5-2.0 × 0.75 mm; embryo 0.6-0.75 mm; pericarp thin, detaching with beak. Protogynous.
N.: North Cape south to Raglan Harbour and Bay of Plenty; Three Kings Is. In sandy and rocky places, often in scrub or under trees, mainly coastal.
Endemic.
TERATOLOGY
Growing shots may become enlarged and thickened and up to 10-15 mm wide; they comprise distichous, very close, leaf-sheaths. Whole shoots may be affected. Examples in Z. minima are Farewell Spit CHR 133928b V. D. Zotov, and AK 143035 A. E. Wright 2495, and in Z. pauciflora are CHR 42710 K. W. Allison Bay of Plenty, Mar 1941, CHR 178251 G. C. Kelly Scott Pt, Jan 1967, CHR 331398 H. Carse Ranganui Harbour, Jan 1900.
Typification of Z. pauciflora Mez in Zotov (1971 op. cit. p. 641) contains the transcription error "L. Cockayne 2513". WELT 16007 is a duplicate of WELT 68500 D. Petrie Opotiki Dec. 1903.
Extremely variable in habit sometimes forming a turf to 3 cm tall with leafy shoots with very short internodes, and at other times with a loose, open habit from long shoot internodes and reaching to 40 cm. The specific criteria in Zotov (1971 op. cit.) are size related. Leaf length, inflorescence length, and number of spikelets/inflorescence vary as the overall habit. CHR 83554 L. B. Moore Pukenui, Houhora Harbour [Northland] Jan 1954 on a sunny roadside bank, and CHR 83553 L. B. Mooreibid. in shade of Leptospermum scrub, illustrate the three points. The former would be referable to Z. pauciflora and the latter to Z. planifolia. CHR 29265 T. Kirk Pumice Hills by Cambridge May 1870 is tall, slender, with shoots to 15 cm, and CHR 29265a ibid. has shoots to 3 cm; CHR 29265b ibid. is intermediate for stature and leaf width; the former was determined as Z. planifolia, and the two latter as Z. pauciflora. There are similar parallels in AK specimens. Zoysia planifolia Zotov is here reduced to synonymy in Z. pauciflora Mez; the two are united by the presence of long cushion-based hairs on leaf-blade collars. The distribution given by Zotov was coincident for both taxa, and remains unchanged.
