Flora of New Zealand Series

; Holotype: AK 1993! T. F. Cheeseman Dun Mt, Nelson, 4000 ft, [1878] (No 1493 to Hackel).

Tufted shortly rhizomatous grass with pungent, stiff, thick leaf-blades much shorter than the tall smooth culmed inflorescence of ± violet suffused spikelets of long-awned, smooth, glaucous florets growing on ultramafic parent materials in South Island Dun Mountains mineral belt. Prophyll 2-3 cm, keels glabrous. Branching extravaginal. Leaf-sheath 3-4 cm, striate, glabrous or minutely antrorsely prickle-toothed, becoming red-brown and fibrous; apical auricle 0.5-1 mm, rounded, ciliate. Ligule 0.5-1 mm, erose, ciliate. Leaf-blade (6)-8-12 cm × 0.6-1.2 mm diam., conduplicate, somewhat compressed, pungent, stiff, strict or slightly curved, ribbed, glabrous, adaxially and on margins abundant short white hairs; TS: 5 vascular bundles, 7 sclerenchyma strands, exceptionally more. Culm 20-50 cm, » leaves, nodes visible, internodes glabrous, sometimes violet suffused below. Panicle narrow, 6-12-(14) cm with 4-6-(10) nodes, (12)-15-25 spikelets; basal branch ascending, 3-8 cm, solitary or binate, with 3-5 spikelets, naked below, nodes 2-5 with branches of 2-4 spikelets, uppermost 3-5 spikelets solitary, imbricate on short pedicels; rachis glabrous or glabrous below becoming prickle-toothed, branches and pedicels prickle-toothed or glabrous, often tortuous below. Spikelets 8-12-(14) mm × 3-4 mm, sometimes violet tinged, of (3)-4-5 florets. Glumes unequal, margins long ciliate below shorter above, keeled, glabrous except for a few prickle-teeth on keel, usually violet suffused centrally or throughout; lower 2.5-4.5 mm, 1-nerved, long-triangular acute, awn 0.4-0.8 mm or absent, upper 3.5-5.3 mm, 3-nerved, oblong acute, awn 0.5-3 mm abrupt or tapering or absent. Lemma 5-7 mm, lobes 0 or minute, 5-nerved, glaucous, glabrous except below awn, scarcely keeled, margin long ciliate below shorter above; awn 1.5-4.2 mm. Palea 5.5-6 mm, ≥ lemma, acute, deeply (0.3-0.5 mm) bifid, keels toothed above, interkeel hairs to base denser at apex, flank margins ciliate. Callus 0.2-0.5 mm, sparsely bearded except near rachilla, articulation ± flat to oblique. Rachilla 1-1.6 mm, densely short stiff hairy. Lodicules (0.7)-1-1.2 mm, lobed, hair-tipped or glabrous. Anthers 2-3 mm, yellow or golden. Gynoecium: ovary 0.6 mm, hispid hairs at apex or absent; stigma-styles 2 mm. Caryopsis 3.5 mm; embryo 0.5 mm; hilum = caryopsis.

S.: Nelson (Dun Mt, near Mt Duppa, Motueka River). Soils developed from ultramafic parent material; 600-1100 m.

Endemic.

Reproductive Biology All species are chasmogamous except F. contracta and F. madida which are cleistogamous [Connor, H. E. N.Z. J. Bot. 36: 471-476 (1998)]. Inbreeding depression was measurable in progenies from self-pollination of F. coxii, F. matthewsii and F. novae-zelandiae [Connor, H. E., and Cook, A. B. N.Z. J. Sci. Tech. A37: 103-105 (1955); Connor, H. E. N.Z. J. Agric. Res. 3: 728-733 (1960), N.Z. J. Bot. 26: 163-167 (1988)]. There is some pseudo-self-incompatibility.

Although F. madida is predominantly cleistogamous, CHR 122577 H. E. Connor Danseys Pass, anthers 1.8 mm, and CHR 428895 K. J. M. Dickinson Whitcombe Creek, west of Umbrella Mts, anthers 1.3-1.5 mm, are chasmogamous. Cleistogamy persists in cultivation - see CHR 193320 P. Wardle & I. R. Fryer Mt Cockayne, Craigieburn Range, Canterbury.

The habit of F. novae-zelandiae is typically caespitose with leaves tightly packed together. After burning, or with time, the central part dies and a ± circular array of individual sets of shoots remains; many of these become large plants of identical self-incompatible genotype, but Lord, J. M. N.Z. J. Bot. 31: 133-138 (1993) concluded that population recruitment of that kind is not as great as that from seeds. For differentiation in seed germination see Lord, J. M. N.Z. J. Bot. 32: 227-235 (1994), and ovule failure and seed production see Lord, J. M. and Kelly, D. N.Z. J. Bot. 37: 503-509 (1999).