Flora of New Zealand Series

subsp. chathamica (Cheeseman) Edgar, N.Z. J. Bot. 34: 26 (1996)

≡Atropis chathamica Cheeseman Man. N.Z. Fl. 203  (1925)

≡Puccinellia chathamica (Cheeseman) Allan et Jansen, T.R.S.N.Z. 69: 266 (1939); 

Lectotype: AK 1978! F. A. D. Cox Chatham Islands (designated by Edgar 1996 op. cit. p. 27).

Plants (6)-10-40-(50) cm. Leaf-sheath light greenish brown, sometimes dark brown or purplish. Panicle 2-10-(13) × 0.5-1.5 cm; branches smooth, subacute-angled. Lemma apex minutely ciliate-scabrid, obtuse with slightly excurrent midnerve, very rarely entire; lemma usually 5-nerved, rarely 7-nerved. Palea keels scabrid in upper ⅓, very rarely slightly ciliate below, reaching only to apex.

Ch., A., C. In salt marsh or on stony shores and hill slopes exposed to the sea.

Endemic.

Reproductive Biology Species of Puccinellia are self-compatible [Connor, H. E. N.Z. J. Sci. Tech. 38A: 742-751 (1957); N.Z. J. Bot. 17: 547-574 (1979)]. New Zealand spp. are chasmogamous but in P. raroflorens some florets remain enclosed in the uppermost leaf-sheath and probably flower cleistogamically.

In collections determined as P. scott-thomsonii, and now regarded as P. fasciculata, the lemmas are c. 3 mm, and anthers indehiscent, either pollenless, or pollen sterile. It is possible that the sterility is caused by some disease especially since a similar phenomenon has been found in P. distans from Okains Bay.