Poa ramosissima Hook.f.
=P. ramosissima var. β Hook.f., Fl. Antarct. 1: 101 (1845);
Holotype: K! J. D. Hooker in rigid naked stemmed tufts on sloping ground from the top of the hills to the sea (1000 ft) on the weather side of Campbell's Island, Dec. 1840; (the sheet bears a second label "1625, covering the ground at an elevat. of 700 ft on the windward side of the Isld, Campbell's Isld").
; Holotype: K! J. D. Hooker Lord Aucklands Islands, hangs down from the cliffs and rocks near the sea, common, very stoloniferous, Nov. 1840.
Bright green, soft, turfy perennial patches, from long, bare prostrate culms, distally becoming erect, leafy and much-branched; branching intravaginal; leaf-blades persistent. Leaf-sheath greenish brown to purplish, glabrous, hyaline, ribs prominent. Ligule (1.5)-2.5-4 mm, deeply and sharply lacerate, glabrous throughout. Leaf-blade (4)-9-15 cm × 1-2 mm, thin, weak, flat, ribs many, strong, minutely papillose-scabrid, adaxially furrowed, evenly narrowed to very finely obtuse or subobtuse tip; margins glabrous. Culm (1)-10-30-(40) cm, internodes glabrous. Panicle (2)-4-5-(10) cm, ± oblong, contracted, usually overtopped by leaves; rachis glabrous, branches erect, short, scarcely spreading, finely papillose-scabrid, bearing few spikelets. Spikelets 4.5-7.5 mm, 3-5-flowered, greenish brown, very minutely papillose-scabrid. Glumes subequal or the lower obviously shorter, both narrow-lanceolate, acute or acuminate; lower 2.5-4 mm, 1-3-nerved, upper 3-4.5 mm, 3-nerved. Lemma 3.8-5 mm, 5-(7)-nerved, elliptic, drawn out to acute or acuminate tip, mid- and lateral nerves with a few short hairs near base. Palea 2.5-4.5 mm, very narrow, keels with a few short hair-like prickle-teeth. Callus with small tufts of long, twisted hairs below midnerve of lemma and occasionally below lateral nerves. Rachilla 0.5-1 mm, glabrous. Lodicules 0.3-1 mm, occasionally hair-tipped. Gynomonoecious: each spikelet with 1-2 lower flowers ⚥, anthers 1.5-2.5 mm, gynoecium c. 1.5 mm; upper flowers ♀ with minute colourless anthers 0.1-0.7 mm, gynoecium c. 1.5 mm. Caryopsis c. 1 × 0.5 mm. 2 n = 28.
A., C. Coastal cliffs, usually associated with bird colonies.
Endemic.
Poa ramosissima is closely related to P. cookii of Macquarie, Heard, and Kerguelen Is. Both spp. are characterised by deeply lacerate ligules, papillose adaxial leaf surfaces and panicle branches, and gynomonoecious flowers. Poa ramosissima is more slender than the large, tufted P. cookii, and both leaf surfaces and all parts of the spikelet are scabrid-papillose in P. ramosissima, whereas the leaf is glabrous abaxially in P. cookii and the spikelets are glabrous.
