Flora of New Zealand Series

Infl. an erect narrow panicle. Spikelets 2-fld, only lower fl. setting fr.; uppermost internode of rhachilla elongated and curved. Glumes clearly distichous, lower ones caducous. Hypog. bristles 0. Stamens 3. Style-branches 3. Fr. held by the persistent stamens and clasped by the inrolled margins of the persistent upper glumes; persistent style-base not readily distinguishable externally. Culms trigonous. Lvs spirally arranged, dorsiventral, margins harshly scabrid, revolute when dry. Two spp.: the type M. gahniaeformis Gaud. from Hawaii; the N.Z. sp. endemic.

Cheeseman (Man. N.Z. Fl. 1925, 240) referred the N.Z. plant to Gahnia gahniaeformis (Gaud.) Heller of Hawaii. St John (Webbia 13, 1958, 331–42) showed that N.Z. plants were distinct from Hawaiian. Kern (Acta bot. neerl. 11, 1962, 216–24) considered that the 2 spp. were misplaced in Gahnia and transferred them to Machaerina. However, Blake (Contrib. Qd Herb. no. 8, 1969, 25, 38) has found further characters which distinguish the 2 spp. from both Gahnia and Machaerina and considers it "necessary to regard Morelotia Gaud. as a distinct genus".