Flora of New Zealand Series

mat grass

Stiff, dense, bright green or greyish green perennial tufts, 15-30-(40) cm, from shortly creeping rhizome, sometimes forming large swards; branching intravaginal. Leaf-sheath coriaceous, strongly ribbed, glabrous, shining, pale greyish brown or creamy. Ligule 0.5-1.4 mm, truncate, entire, abaxially with sparse prickle-teeth. Leaf-blade 6-18 cm × c. 0.5 mm diam., tightly involute, hard, pungent, spreading at right angles to sheath at maturity, abaxially smooth, or with minute prickle-teeth or hairs beside ribs, adaxially minutely papillose on ribs. Culm 10-32 cm, slender, erect, internodes glabrous, or minutely hairy or prickle-toothed. Spike 4.5-7.5 cm, secund, very slender; rachis concave-convex, smooth but margins finely scabrid, produced as a fine scabrid bristle 2-9 mm. Spikelets 6-10.5 mm, 1-flowered, in 2 rows along concave side of rachis, loosely to closely overlapping, sessile in notches on rachis, green or usually purplish. Glumes persistent, much reduced; lower a ± triangular, sometimes short-ciliate wedge, projecting upwards from rim of rachis-notch, c. 0.3-0.6 mm, upper usually 0. Lemma = spikelet, 3-nerved with central nerve inconspicuous and lateral nerves prominent, subcoriaceous with wide membranous margins, narrow-lanceolate or lanceolate-oblong, smooth to minutely scabrid above with some longer prickle-teeth on lateral nerves; awn 1.6-3 mm, terminal, straight. Palea slightly < lemma, membranous, apex rounded and very short-ciliate, keels 2. Callus ringed by minute hairs. Lodicules 0. Stamens 3; anthers 3.5-4 mm and fertile, or mostly 1-2 mm and pollenless. Gynoecium: ovary c. 1 mm, glabrous; stigma-style 5-6 mm. Caryopsis c. 3 × 0.5 mm, fusiform; embryo c. ⅙ caryopsis; hilum c. ⅓ caryopsis. Fig. 4.

N.: Volcanic Plateau (Waimarino); S.: scattered and local, not recorded from Westland and Fiordland. Swampy pasture and damp ground.

Naturalised from Eurasia.

Fig. 4 Nardus stricta S, portion of spike, showing secund spikelets, × 10; G, portion of spike showing lower glume, × 20; L, lemma, × 12; P, palea dorsal view, × 12; St, stamens × 20; O, ovary, style and stigma, × 12. © All rights reserved. [Image: 4X7V]