Flora of New Zealand Series

; Holotype: CHR 417471! D. R. Given 13899 Rakeinui, east end of lake, Chatham Island, 24 Feb 1985; ⚥.

Very tall, stout, glaucous tussock growing on peat or in bogs. Leaf-sheath internerves and margins long hairy. Ligule to 2 mm. Collar glabrous abaxially, some few short hairs adaxially. Leaf-blade to 1.5 m × 1.5 cm, tapering to long, thin point; abaxially with long interrib hairs below becoming fewer and prickle-teeth becoming dense above, adaxially with dense weft of long interrib hairs at base becoming fewer and generally glabrous except near margins; margins scabrid below becoming very scabrid above. Culm to 2 m, internodes glabrous. Inflorescence to 70 cm, dense, plumose, branches and pedicels densely long hairy, rachis less so, hairs longer below spikelet. Spikelets with 2 ⚥ florets. Glumes ± equal, to 25 mm, including florets, 1-nerved, thin; upper with hairs to 10 mm from below, lower with fewer or none, elsewhere minute scattered teeth. Lemma to 9 mm, 3-nerved, scattered prickle-teeth; lateral lobes to 2 mm; hairs to 10 mm radiating from below and reaching tip of lemma, central awn to 9 mm. Palea to 7 mm, attenuated, long-hairy, apex hair-tipped, keels ciliate, interkeel and flanks glabrous above. Callus hairs to 3 mm. Rachilla to 1 mm, glabrous. Lodicules irregularly rhomboidal to 0.5 mm, hairs to 0.75 mm. Anthers 1.7-2.6 mm. Gynoecium: ovary to 0.8 mm; stigma-styles to 2.5 mm. Caryopsis ovate, rugose, shortly stipitate, to 3 mm; embryo to 1 mm; hilum to 1.5 mm.

Ch.: Chatham and Pitt Is. On peat and in sphagnum bogs.

Endemic.

Although hybrids are easily made in controlled conditions, and occur spontaneously in experimental gardens, and are quite fertile, none has been found in the wild.

All plants bear ⚥ flowers.

REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY

All hermaphrodites of indigenous species are self-compatible, but those of C. selloana are self-incompatible.

(1) Floral dimorphisms between H and F in gynodioecism: Connor, H. E. N.Z. J. Bot. 1: 258-264 (1963); Connor, H. E. Evolution 27: 663-678 (1974).(2) Sex form frequencies: (a) natural populations: Connor (1963 op. cit.); Connor, H. E. N.Z. J. Bot. 3: 17-23 (1965); Connor, H. E. and Penny, E. D. N.Z. J. Agric. Res. 3: 725-727 (1960); Connor, H. E. N.Z. J. Bot. 9: 519-525 (1971); (b) in experimental intraspecific hybrids: Connor, H. E. N.Z. J. Bot. 3: 233-242 (1965); Connor, H. E. and Charlesworth, D. Heredity 63: 373-382 (1989); these papers also contain analyses of the genetics of male-sterility; (c) in experimental interspecific hybrids: Connor, H. E. Heredity 51: 395-403 (1983). (3) Embryology: Philipson, M. N. N.Z. J. Bot. 16: 45-59 (1978); Philipson, M. N. and Connor, H. E. Bot. Gaz. 145: 78-82 (1984).

For comments on endangered status see Given, D. R. and Williams, P. A. Botany Division DSIR Report 1985; for commentary on reproductive biology see Connor, H. E. N.Z. J. Bot. 26: 163-167 (1988).

CHEMOTAXONOMY

Most investigations are on triterpene methyl ethers, their kinds, interspecies distribution, and their inheritance in epicuticular leaf wax, but also on alkanes and fatty acids: Bryce, T. A. et al. Phytochem. 6: 727-722 (1967); Connor, H. E. and Purdie, A. W. Phytochem. 15: 1937-1939 (1976); Connor, H. E. and Purdie, A. W. N.Z. J. Bot. 19: 171-172 (1981); Eglinton, G. et al. Tetrahedron Letters 34: 2323-2327 (1964); Martin-Smith, M., Subramanian, G. and Connor, H. E. Phytochem. 6: 559-572 (1967); Martin-Smith, M., Ahmed, S. and Connor, H. E. Phytochem. 10: 2167-2173 (1971); Purdie, A. W. and Connor, H. E. Phytochem. 12: 1196 (1973). Cyanogenesis: Tjon Sie Fat, L. Proc. Kon. Nederl. Akad. Wetensch. C82: 165-170 (1979).