Flora of New Zealand Series

=Catabrosa antarctica Hook.f., Fl. Antarct. 1: 102, t. 56 (1845) a combination in Deschampsia is preoccupied by D. antarctica E.Desv. (1853)

≡Triodia antarctica (Hook.f.) Benth., J. Linn. Soc. Bot. 19: 111 (1881) non Hook.f. (1846)

≡Sieglingia antarctica (Hook.f.) Kuntze, Rev. Gen. Pl. 2: 789 (1891)

≡Deschampsia hookeri Kirk, J. Bot. 29: 238 (1891 [August]) nom. superfl.; 

Holotype: K! J. D. Hooker Campbell's Islands, apparently very scarce on rocky ledges of the mts, Dec. 1840.

=D. novae-zelandiae Petrie, T.N.Z.I. 23: 402 (1891 [May]); 

Lectotype: WELT 69475a! D. P[etrie] Hector Mts, c. 5000 ft. [Feb. 1890] (here designated).

; Lectotype: WELT 69437! F. R. Chapman Auckland Islands, Jan. 1890 (here desig-nated).

Slender, erect, smooth, glabrous, leafy tufts, often stoloniferous and forming swards, 5-35-(55) cm, with delicate shining panicles. Leaf-sheath membranous, broader than leaf-blade, distinctly ribbed, midrib more prominent, lower sheaths usually reddish brown, sometimes light greyish, upper sheaths light green. Ligule (0.5)-2-4.5-(7) mm, tapering to acuminate tip. Leaf-blade 1-8 cm × 0.3-0.7-(1) mm, involute to ± flat, often filiform, sometimes disarticulating at ligule, glabrous; margins minutely scabrid, tip acute. Culm erect or ascending, branched at base. Panicle (1.5)-2-14 cm, slender, lax; branches filiform, erect to later spreading, smooth to minutely scaberulous, tipped by few spikelets. Spikelets 2.2-4.5 mm, green to brown, sometimes purplish. Glumes unequal, < spikelet, keel sometimes minutely scabrid near tip, and margins minutely ciliate-scabrid; lower 1-2 mm, 1-nerved, narrow-lanceolate to narrow-elliptic, acute, upper 1.5-2.7 mm, 3-nerved, elliptic-ovate to ovate, subacute to subobtuse. Lemma 1.4-2.2 mm, ovate-oblong, hyaline, irregularly 3-5-toothed, sometimes minutely mucronate or with a minute subterminal awn to 1 mm. Palea narrower than lemma, keels sparsely ciliate-scabrid or glabrous. Callus hairs c. 0.1 mm. Rachilla glabrous, rarely with one or two minute (c. 0.1 mm) hairs. Anthers 0.2-0.6-(0.7) mm. Caryopsis 0.8-1 × 0.3-0.4 mm. 2 n = 26.

N.: central mountains; S.: throughout; St.; A., C., M. Moist to very wet places in grassland, herbfield and forest margins; sea level to alpine.

Endemic.

Cheeseman (1906 op. cit. p. 877; 1925 op. cit. p. 166) regarded D. novae-zelandiae as distinct from subantarctic D. chapmanii in characters of the lemma apex: in D. novae-zelandiae irregularly minutely denticulate with awn wanting; in D. chapmanii ± irregularly 3-5-toothed with awn usually present. It seems impossible to separate two taxa on the basis of this variable character. In fact, some lemmas on the type specimen of D. novae-zelandiae have minute awns and many are 3-toothed. Although plants from the Subantarctic Islands are stoloniferous with dark brown basal leaf-sheaths, leaf-blades hardly filiform and lemmas definitely, though very shortly, awned, many plants from North and South Is also share these characters and no clear cut distinction can be made between these plants and others, often growing in the same locality, which are hardly stoloniferous, have lighter greyish brown basal sheaths, more filiform leaves, and awnless, to shortly mucronate, to shortly awned lemmas.

The names D. chapmanii and D. novae-zelandiae published at the same time by Petrie (1891 op. cit.) have equal priority at species rank (ICBN Art. 11.5). We adopt the name D. chapmanii because the type specimen is more representative of the united taxon throughout its whole range.

LECTOTYPIFICATION

The lectotype of D. chapmanii, WELT 69437, is from Petrie's herbarium whereas a similar specimen collected by F. R. Chapman, WELT 69436 in Kirk's herbarium, was annotated by Kirk as from the Antipodes Is; Godley, E. J. N.Z. J. Bot. 27: 553 (1989) drew attention to Kirk's mislabelling of specimens from the Auckland Is.

Of the 4 specimens of D. novae-zelandiae in WELT collected by Petrie on the Hector Mts, the lectotype WELT 69475a consists of 2 similar-sized good tufts from a single altitude c. 5000 ft, whereas the other sheets bear many smaller pieces of different sizes collected from altitudes between 4000 and 6000 ft.