Agrostis muelleriana Vickery
≡A. canina var. β Hook.f. Handbk N.Z. Fl. 328 (1864)
≡A. gelida F.Muell. Trans. Vict. Inst. 43 (1855) non Trin. (1845)
≡A. canina var. β gelida (F.Muell.) Buchanan Indig. Grasses N.Z. t. 20A (1878)
≡A. muelleri Benth., Fl. Austral. 7: 576 (1878) non C.Presl (1844);
Holotype: K! F. Mueller [Australia, Victoria], Cobboras [Cobberas] Mountains, 6000 feet.
Dense, often small, dull green, usually strict, perennial tufts, (3)-5-30 cm, with narrow, usually dark purplish, sometimes green spike-like panicles on slender culms much overtopping to scarcely overtopping leaves; branching intravaginal. Leaf-sheath ± membranous, light green or pale brownish, glabrous, ribs few distinct, rarely minutely scabrid above. Ligule 1-2-(3) mm, acute to truncate, usually fimbriate to lacerate, abaxially scabrid. Leaf-blade 1-7 cm × 0.4-0.7 mm diam., folded with involute margins, often filiform, or strict and firm, ± erect, sometimes more flattened and wider, to 2 mm, abaxially smooth or finely scabrid, adaxially finely scabrid on ribs; margins finely scabrid, narrowed to fine subobtuse tip; uppermost culm leaves abaxially scabrid. Culm erect, internodes glabrous. Panicle 1-4.5-(10) cm, contracted, erect, densely narrow-linear, longer panicles densely oblong, > 5 mm wide; rachis smooth or obscurely scabrid, branches and pedicels short, erect, capillary, finely scabrid. Spikelets (1.5)-2-3-(3.5) mm. Glumes ± unequal, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, acute to subobtuse, usually tinged deep reddish purple, occasionally entirely green, margins colourless or purplish, usually finely scabrid on keel and at times near tip, otherwise smooth or papillose; lower = spikelet, upper (1.4)-2-2.5-(3) mm. Lemma 1.4-2 mm, glabrous, 5-nerved, lateral nerves often faint, oblong-ovate, obtuse or truncate, usually minutely denticulate; awn 0, or present and dorsal, from midpoint or from just below upper ⅓, 0.5-2-(2.5) mm, delicate, usually projecting beyond glumes. Palea c. 0.4 mm, ovate. Lodicules 0.3-0.4 mm. Callus with very few minute hairs or glabrous. Anthers 0.4-1 mm. Caryopsis c. 1 × 0.3-0.5 mm.
N.: central mountains; S.: mountains throughout. Montane to alpine in rocky ground or in seepages.
Indigenous.
Specimens from Mt Cook, western Otago, and Fiordland are often more luxuriant than usual, with wider, flat leaves, and wider panicles to 10 cm long. Sometimes the lower branches of the panicle may be slightly spreading but the spikelets are always densely crowded. These plants are often awned and resemble A. magellanica but the spikelets are smaller and the awns shorter and finer.
Also indigenous to Australia; New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania.
Although A. muelleriana resembles A. subulata in the short, contracted panicle, the glumes, panicle branches, and leaves of A. muelleriana are distinctly less scabrid than those of A. subulata which seems confined to Auckland and Campbell Is.
