Festuca coxii (Petrie) Hack.
≡Agropyrum coxii Petrie, T.N.Z.I. 34: 395 (1902);
Lectotype: AK 2009! L. Cockayne & F. A. D. Cox Herb. L. Cockayne 4024, rocks near the sea, Chatham Island, Jan 1901 (No 1515 to Hackel), (designated by Connor 1998 op. cit. p. 339).
Tall tufted tussock with intravaginal branching sometimes internodes elongating below and rooting at nodes; inflorescence short, compact, usually shorter than tall leaf-blades with long awned abundantly prickle-toothed florets in shortly pedicelled spikelets. Prophyll 4-6 cm, stramineous and dark-brown papery on margins, keels mostly retrorsely hairy. Leaf-sheath 8-12-(20) cm, thin, pale, much broader than leaf-blades, minutely retrorsely or antrorsely hairy between nerves becoming glabrous above, margins dark brown membranous below; apical auricles 0-0.5 mm, ciliate. Collar conspicuously thickened and curved. Ligule 0.3-0.5 mm, ciliate. Leaf-blade (11-15)-20-35-(40) cm × (0.5)-06-0.8-(0.9) mm diam., glaucous, softly sharp-pointed, terete to somewhat compressed, glabrous, adaxially and on margin a multitude of short (0.15 mm) antrorse or erect prickle-teeth becoming smaller above; TS: 5 vascular bundles, sclerenchyma continuous; costal sclerenchyma often present. Culm 25-45 cm, almost always included by leaf-blades; nodes 2-3 dark, glabrous, sometimes ± geniculate; internodes glabrous or densely antrorsely short hairy sometimes becoming less so below. Panicle 6-10-(15) cm, narrow, compact, with 8-11 nodes, of 12-18 close-set, usually imbricate, spikelets; branches short, erect-appressed, basal branch 1-2 cm of 3-5 spikelets, not naked below, uppermost 6-10 spikelets solitary on short pedicels; rachis, branches and pedicels prickle-toothed on margins, and frequently also densely antrorsely short hairy becoming less so above, or ± glabrous. Spikelets 15-25-(30) mm, 5-6 mm wide, of 5-7 florets. Glumes evidently unequal, usually green centrally, broad, narrowing and becoming awned, prominently keeled, glabrous except for prickle-teeth on keel above and near awn, margin hyaline sometimes short hairy or finely ciliate; usually ≈ lowermost lemma, twice as long as nearest proximate internodes or in upper panicle twice proximate internodes of solitary spikelets; lower 4-10 mm, 1-nerved, upper 6-12 mm, 3-nerved (both longer on The Sisters). Lemma 6-10 mm, becoming briefly canaliculate, lobes 0 or extremely minute, 5-nerved, slightly keeled, abundantly striately prickle-toothed (0.15 mm) throughout, longer teeth and/or hairs below, and on keel and at margins below; awn 6-13 mm, usually > lemma. Palea 6-9 mm, usually < lemma, apex deeply (0.5-2 mm) bifid, keels toothed to base, interkeel hairs above, margins of flanks very shortly toothed; sometimes folded. Callus 0.3-0.6 mm, abundantly long (0.2 mm) hairy on upper margin, shorter centrally; articulation acute. Rachilla 1-1.6 mm, densely antrorsely long hairy. Lodicules 0.7-1.5 mm, conspicuously hair-tipped, simple lozenge-shaped to slightly lobed, ≤ ovary. Anthers 3.7-4.2 mm, orange. Gynoecium: ovary 1-1.4 mm, triangular turbinate, apex with narrow rim enclosing base of styles and central tuft of hispid hairs (0.2 mm); stigma-styles 2.5-3 mm. Caryopsis 3.7-4.6 mm, free but firmly enclosed by anthoecium; embryo 0.7-1 mm; hilum ≈ caryopsis. 2 n = 56.
Ch.: known from all islands except The Forty Fours. Coastal cliffs and bluffs to 200 m.
Endemic.
The most remarkable endemic species of Festuca especially in the vesture of the lemma, awn ≥ lemma, the very short (5 mm) internodes of the upper inflorescence, and many-leaved shoots. It looks less like a Festuca than any other endemic. Petrie (1902 loc. cit.) not unreasonably interpreted it as a true Agropyron in spite of the short branches of the rachis and the shortly pedicelled spikelets.
