Flora of New Zealand Series

; Holotype: CHR 176087! I. M. Ritchie Ridge to Manakau, Kowhai R. c. 3500 ft. Seaward Kaikoura Ra., Marlborough, 13.1.1967.

Leaf-sheath to 20 cm, often purple; internerves and margins hairy, apical tuft of hairs to 2 mm. Leaf-blade to 70 cm × 8 mm, persistent, adaxially with scattered long hairs (4 mm) and prickle-teeth. Culm to 1 m, sheath margin hairy.

S.: Mountain ranges in southern Marlborough and Nelson, North Canterbury, and Westland. Grasslands; to 1650 m, but at higher altitudes in Nelson.

At and near Nelson Lakes the adaxial leaf-blade surface lacks long hairs, but the culm-sheath margins and the leaf-sheath internerves are hairy. Populations at "Altimarlock", Black Birch Range, Marlborough, are variable in stature, just as in subsp. pallens on the Tararua Range.