Flora of New Zealand Series

≡Gaimardia minima Colenso, T.N.Z.I. 22: 491 (1890); 

Lectotype: K! K. Hill Mount Tongariro, dry open grounds, 1889, (designated by Zotov 1971 op. cit. p. 640).

Rhizome stout, long, to 1.5 mm diam., whitish, smooth; cataphylls smooth, grey or whitish; shoots to 5-(10) cm, branching several times intravaginally at or above ground. Leaf-sheath shining white below, purplish above, striate, margins membranous, wide, glabrous. Ligule 0.1-0.2 mm, ciliate. Collar glabrous, swollen, recurved, very rarely with 1-2 long hairs. Leaf-blade 5-30 mm, distinctly divergent, folded, abaxially smooth, adaxially scabrid on ribs; margins incurved, thickened and scabrid. Culm to 2 cm, terete to usually laterally compressed, ridged, usually scabrid on ridges below spikelet otherwise glabrous, bearing 1 leaf or leaf reduced to sheath, and often a minute bract above. Spikelet 1, occasionally 2-3, peduncles narrowly ovate, lanceolate, c. 1 mm wide. Glumes indurated, lower usually absent, if present much reduced, occasionally complete and awned, to c. 4.5 mm, upper glume (3)-3.5-7 mm, minutely scabrid above and on margins, ± golden to golden-brown, nerves 7-9, very weak; awn 0.2-2.5 mm, scabrid. Lemma 3-4.5 mm, ovate-lanceolate, 1-nerved, firm-hyaline, shallowly bifid, glabrous. Palea 3-4 mm. Anthers c. 2 mm. Gynoecium: ovary 0.5-0.75 mm; stigma-styles 7-7.5 mm. Caryopsis 1.5-1.75 mm; embryo 0.75 mm; pericarp detaching with 0.25-0.35 mm beak. Protogynous.

N.: South from Auckland and Coromandel; S.: scattered in localities in Nelson, Marlborough, Westland, Canterbury and Central Otago. Coastal and inland sand dunes, sands and gravel; sea level to 600 m.

Endemic.

Plants with predominantly solitary spikelets may bear some racemes of 2-3 spikelets, occasionally some plants have a few collar hairs. Single spikelet inflorescences persist in cultivation (CHR 156943, 223438 Amberley Beach).

CHR 332396 H. Carse Tauroa [Peninsula] Northland, Jan 1912, is a sheet of four separate pieces; mostly inflorescences of single spikelets but not all; collar hairs are not always evident though they are present. Veritable Z. pauciflora is mounted on the sheet, and is found in the locality, see: CHR 331401a,b H. Carse Jan 1917; CHR 469630 A. P. Druce Jan 1990. CHR 331400a,b H. Carse Jan 1913 is luxuriant.