Deschampsia tenella Petrie
≡D. tenella Petrie var. tenella (autonym Petrie 1901 op. cit. p. 329);
Lectotype: WELT 69304a! D. P[etrie] Catlins' River, Clutha Co., Otago (here designated).
=D. tenella var. procera Petrie, T.N.Z.I. 33: 329 (1901);
Lectotype: WELT 69469a! D. Petrie Clinton Valley, Te Anau, Jan. 1892 (here designated).
Slender, smooth, leafy tufts, sometimes sward-forming, 9-35-(50) cm, with delicately branched shining panicles. Leaf-sheath membranous, broader than leaf-blade, rounded, sparsely strongly ribbed, light brown, sometimes purplish. Ligule 1-4 mm, tapered to acuminate tip. Leaf-blade (3)-5-15-(20) cm × 0.3-0.6 mm diam., involute, filiform, flaccid, smooth, tip minutely scabrid. Culm erect, or geniculate at base, green or purplish, usually overtopping leaves, internodes glabrous. Panicle (4)-10-(12) cm, very lax, branches few, filiform, erect to spreading, very sparsely minutely scabrid, naked below, tipped by 1-few spikelets. Spikelets 2-3-(4) mm, shining, hyaline to light green to brownish. Glumes unequal, < spikelet, ± keeled, sparsely minutely prickle-toothed on midnerve and margins near tip; lower 0.5-2 mm, 1-nerved, narrow- to oblong-lanceolate, acute, upper 1.2-2.5 mm, (1)-3-nerved, elliptic-lanceolate or elliptic-oblong, acute to obtuse. Lemma 1.5-2.5 mm, ovate-oblong, hyaline, shining, irregularly 3-4-toothed, awnless or awn subapical to 1-(1.5) mm. Palea ≤ lemma, apex shortly bifid, keels minutely scaberulous. Callus hairs 0.2-0.7-(1) mm, ± sparse to dense. Rachilla hairs c. 0.5 mm, silky, ± dense. Anthers 0.3-0.7-(1) mm. Caryopsis 1-1.5 × 0.3-0.5 mm. 2 n = 26.
N.: southern half; S.: common in Nelson and Fiordland, scattered in eastern areas; St. Sea level to alpine in forest, scrub or tussock grassland, often on stream banks or in boggy ground.
Endemic.
CHR 402550 A. P. Druce West Dome, Southland, 2300 ft, March 1993, matches D. tenella in the silky hairy rachilla, but the plant is tall, 50 cm, and stouter than usual, and the glumes almost equal the florets.
LECTOTYPIFICATION
From a number of sheets at WELT of Petrie's gathering of D. tenella at Catlin's River, WELT 69304a was designated lectotype because it is composed of two good large tufts; the other material is similar but has been divided into smaller pieces.
Petrie (1901 op. cit.) described D. tenella var. procera as larger in all its parts with spikelets twice the usual size. WELT 69469a was designated lectotype because it is a single good tuft. The specimen is similar in size to other Fiordland plants of D. tenella and the spikelets are 3-3.5 mm, only slightly longer than in other specimens of D. tenella; a duplicate, CHR 25070, has spikelets to 4 mm.