Flora of New Zealand Series

; Lectotype: K! J. Haast 672 Canterbury, New Zealand, 1862 (designated by Edgar 1998 op. cit. p. 560).

Erect ± open tufts to 100 cm, with flat dull green leaves usually « culms and long, narrow-lanceolate, silvery panicles; branching extravaginal. Leaf-sheath to 5 cm, often pubescent or puberulous, sometimes minutely prickle-toothed or glabrous, upper sheaths usually with long fine soft scattered retrorse hairs. Ligule 1-1.5 mm, erose or lacerate, shortly stiff-ciliate, abaxially often with minute hairs. Leaf-blade 3-15 cm × 1-7 mm, sometimes with scattered long hairs, abaxially glabrous to minutely scabrid above, adaxially finely ribbed, ribs minutely prickle-toothed; margins scabrid, sometimes with scattered long hairs. Culm 9-60 cm, internodes mainly glabrous but usually with soft hairs above and below nodes, scabrid to puberulous below panicle and often with a few long hairs, occasionally pubescent to villous throughout. Panicle 3-15-(24) × 0.5-2 cm, lanceolate-oblong, ± spike-like and rachis visible, or lower branches sometimes slightly distant, narrowly branched, each branch bearing few spikelets crowded to base; rachis usually scabrid, sometimes smooth or pubescent, lower nodes often with tufts of long hairs, branches scabrid or sometimes pubescent. Spikelets 5.5-8 mm, light green, purplish or brownish tinged. Glumes subequal, membranous, keels with prickle-teeth in upper ½; lower ≤ upper, elliptic-oblong to elliptic, upper ≈ spikelet, wider elliptic; margins very minutely prickle-toothed near acute or sometimes finely mucronate tip. Lemma 5-6.5 mm, bidentate to shortly bicuspid, closely finely scabrid with prickle-teeth more prominent near keel; awn 4-7 mm, slightly to strongly recurved, insertion in upper ¼ of lemma. Palea minutely prickle-toothed on keels throughout, on flanks, and on margins above. Callus hairs to 0.5 mm. Rachilla hairs to 1 mm. Lodicules c. 1 mm, glabrous. Anthers 0.8-1.3 mm. Gynoecium: ovary to 1 mm; stigma-styles to 2 mm. Caryopsis c. 2.7 × 0.8 mm.

N.: Mt Hikurangi, Ruahine and Tararua Ranges; S.: along Main Divide and to the west, also in Fiordland, extending east to the Two Thumb Range in South Canterbury and to the Old Man Range in Otago. Subalpine to alpine grassland, shrubland and forest margins, on shadier slopes, in rocky or damp ground, sometimes on limestone or marble cliffs, 760-1980 m. FL Dec-Feb.

Endemic.

Some spikelets may have unequal glumes, e.g., AK 1587 T. F. Cheeseman Arthur's Pass, Jan 1883 (No. 1227 to Hackel). Specimens from Mt Mytton, Cobb Valley, and Mt Owen, north-west Nelson, show similar variation.

Plants with villous culms are uncommon but occur throughout the range of the species. Plants in which the culms are only shortly pubescent occur more frequently in north-west Nelson and also in Fiordland.

REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY

All N.Z. species appear to be chasmogamous. Connor, H. E. N.Z. J. Sci. Tech. 38A: 742-751 (1957) recorded T. lepidum from Omarama (as T. antarctium), and T. youngii, as self-sterile.

DISJUNCT DISTRIBUTION

Disjunct distribution is marked: T. serpentinum is recorded only at North Cape and on the Mineral Belt in northern South Id; T. drucei occurs in mountains of eastern North Id, and in South Id in north-west Nelson and on the Chalk Range of eastern Marlborough; T. lasiorhachis of the central mountains of North Id has outliers in north-west Nelson and on the Chalk Range; even in T. spicatum and T. tenellum which spread eastwards from the Main Divide in South Id, there is a noticeable gap in distribution in North Canterbury from the boundary with Marlborough southwards to Arthur's Pass and Banks Peninsula.

EXCLUDED SPECIES

Eurasian T. flavescens,NameAuthor author=" (L.) P.Beauv."/. was recorded several times for New Zealand (Edgar 1998 op. cit. p. 562) but only one specimen, AK 99562 D. Petrie Ranfurly Road, Epsom, at roadside, Jan 1919, has been found. This plant probably escaped from Petrie's garden at Epsom; the geniculate awns distinguish T. flavescens from N.Z. species.