Agrostis magellanica Lam.
=A. multiculmis Hook.f., Fl. Antarct. 1: 95 (1845);
Holotype: K! J. D. Hooker 1628 on sloping banks about 500 ft above the sea on the west side of Campbell's Island, prostrate, Decr. 1840.
Tufted leafy perennials, very variable in size, usually ± erect, but occasionally with prostrate culms, 5-45 cm, leaves overtopping panicles, or panicles projecting beyond leaves; branching extravaginal. Leaf-sheath firmly membranous, very pale creamy brown, closely ribbed, glabrous, later shredding into fibres. Ligule 1-5 mm, truncate, irregularly denticulate, abaxially scabrid. Leaf-blade 2-16 cm × 0.5-1 mm diam., folded and inrolled, sometimes flattish and up to 2 mm wide, tough, abaxially smooth with midrib prominent only near base and scabrid near acute tip, adaxially strongly, closely ribbed, ribs finely prickle-toothed; margins scabrid. Culm erect or slightly geniculate at base, internodes finely scabrid below panicle or occasionally smooth. Panicle 2-10-(12) cm, contracted, erect, densely elliptic- or linear-oblong; rachis, branches, and pedicels erect and closely scabrid. Spikelets 3.5-5 mm, greenish purple. Glumes subequal, usually finely scabrid especially near acuminate tip, keel strongly scabrid throughout or only above. Lemma (1.5)-1.8-2.2-(2.5) mm, glabrous, 5-nerved with nerves thickened and sometimes minutely scabrid above, ovate, truncate and shortly 4-toothed, always awned; awn 3-4-(5) mm, middorsal, scabrid, very fine, usually flexuous and twisted near base, often projecting well beyond glumes. Palea 0.4-0.7 mm, ovate-elliptic. Lodicules 0.5-0.6 mm. Callus with minute tufts of hair on either side of lemma base. Anthers 0.5-0.9 mm. Caryopsis 1.2-1.6 × 0.4-0.5 mm. 2 n = 84.
S.: in south-western regions; Ant., A., C., M. On stony or rocky ground, and also in dry to wet peat and moss cushions in the Subantarctic Islands; subalpine to alpine, and at lower altitudes in the Subantarctic.
Indigenous.
Also indigenous to South America (from Chile to Tierra del Fuego), and on Falkland, Kerguelen, Crozet, and Marion Is.
In southern South America much taller, broader-leaved plants of damp ground are referred to as A. magellanica, whereas A. meyenii Trin. is an alpine grass with stature and habit similar to A. magellanica from South Id (P. Wardle pers. comm.).
