Flora of New Zealand Series

≡Festuca scoparia Hook.f., Fl. Antarct. 1: 98 (1845) 

a combination in Poa is preoccupied by P. scoparia Kunth (1832); Holotype: K! J. D. Hooker Dea's head on rocks near the sea in large tufts Ld Auckland's Islands, Nov. 1840.

=F. scoparia var. β Hook.f., Fl. Antarct. 1: 99 (1845); 

Holotype: K! J. D. Hooker on ledges of rock, 1000 ft, Campbell's Island, Dec. 1840.

Stiff, wiry, straw-coloured tussock, to 1.8 m, with acicular-tipped leaves overtopping culms; rhizome slender, from base of tufts; branching intravaginal; leaf-blades persistent. Leaf-sheath light green to straw-coloured to grey-brown, ± shining, coriaceous, distinctly ribbed, smooth or short-scabrid between ribs. Ligule 0.3-1 mm, a truncate ciliate rim, abaxially with a dense mat of minute hairs. Leaf-blade 10-65 cm, inrolled c. 1 mm diam., coriaceous, abaxially glabrous, adaxially with stiff short hairs; tip straight-sided, pungent. Culm 5-50 cm, erect, internodes usually very slightly scabrid just below panicle. Panicle (4.5)-6-15 cm, contracted, with few, short, erect, scabrid branches. Spikelets (7)-11-14 mm, 4-6-(7)-flowered, light green, glumes and lemmas brown-tipped. Glumes unequal, 3-nerved, narrow-lanceolate, subobtuse, ± scabrid above; lower (4)-5.5-7 mm, upper (5)-6-7.5 mm. Lemma (5.5)-6-7.5 mm, 5-nerved, elliptic-oblong, obtuse, short-scabrid, with hairs on lower ⅓ of mid-nerve and outer lateral nerves. Palea 5.5-6.5 mm, keels ciliate-scabrid, interkeel with minute hairs and prickle-teeth, tip bifid. Callus with narrow tuft of long crinkled hairs. Rachilla 1-1.5 mm, stiff-ciliate; prolongation twice as long. Lodicules 0.8-1.5 mm, occasionally hair-tipped. Anthers (2.5)-3-4 mm. Caryopsis c. 3 × 1 mm. 2 n =c. 266.

Ant., A., C., M. Coastal and upland in tussock grassland, on peat, often in enriched sites.

Endemic.

More stunted tussocks are generally found on the inland plains in Antipodes Is (E. J. Godley in Edgar 1986 op. cit. p. 450) and are more slender with smaller spikelets than those from coastal Antipodes, Auckland and Campbell Is.