Flora of New Zealand Series

; Holotype: AK 200090! L. M. Cranwell Maungapohatu, Urewera, 20-23 Jan. 1932.

Short extravaginally tufted to tall stoloniferous grass with long shoots bearing inflorescences of small panicles of few broad dark violet suffused usually patent spikelets on short prostrate to ascending culms above the shorter leaves. Branching extravaginal. Leaf-sheath 2-5-(8) cm, glabrous, striate, much wider than leaf-blade, becoming brown and fibrous below, margins membranous; apical auricles 0.3-0.4 mm, rounded, ciliate. Ligule as for auricles. Leaf-blade 3-12 cm × 0.6-1.0 mm diam.; ± hexagonal with evident ribs or folded, glabrous, glaucous, adaxially and on margins with a multitude of short antrorse hairs; TS: 5-7 vascular bundles, 7-9 sclerenchyma strands, rarely irregular. Culm 4-15 cm or 15-30-(50) cm, in swollen shoots, erect or erect-ascending, usually > leaf-blades; nodes visible, internodes glabrous. Panicle (2)-3-7-(10) cm, with 4-7 nodes, 5-11-20 spikelets; branches erect or weakly spreading usually solitary, basal branch 2-5 cm of 1-4 spikelets, not naked below, uppermost 4-5 spikelets solitary on short pedicels; rachis mostly glabrous and frequently tortuous below, branches and pedicels usually prickle-toothed. Spikelets 8-12 mm × (4)-5-7 mm wide, of 4-7-(10) florets, glaucous, dull violet suffused, imbricate, becoming evidently patent at anthesis and up to 10 mm wide. Glumes evidently unequal, keeled, narrowing to become acute or acuminate, smooth but occasionally prickle-toothed on keels, apex with long (0.2-0.5 mm) cilia, margins shortly or conspicuously long ciliate; lower 2.6-3-4 mm, l-nerved, upper 3-4.5-6 mm, 3-nerved, nerves sometimes evident. Lemma 5-6-(7) mm, lobes 0 or very short, 5-nerved, slightly keeled above, inrolled, ± prickle-toothed throughout or short stiff hairy and prickle-toothed; awn 0-0.5-1 mm; apex of lowest lemma usually awnless and often long (0.3-0.5 mm) ciliate. Palea 5.5-6.5-(7) mm, usually > lemma, apex deeply (0.3-1 mm) bifid, keels toothed in upper ⅓ occasionally more, interkeel hairs above, margins of flanks ciliate. Callus 0.2-0.3 mm, shortly stiffly bearded throughout; articulation oblique. Rachilla 0.75-1.5 mm, with short prickle-teeth or stiff hairs. Lodicules 1-1.4 mm, ≥ ovary, lobed, glabrous. Anthers 2-2.5-(3.5) mm. Gynoecium: ovary 1 mm, turbinate, hispid hairs at apex or glabrous; stigma-styles (1.75)-2-3 mm. Caryopsis 3 mm; embryo 1 mm; hilum linear, 2 mm.

N.: eastern and inland on Raukumara Range (Mt Hikurangi, Mt Wharekia), Maungaharuru Range, and Huiarau Range (Mt Maunga-pohatu). Limestone rocks and cliffs, tussock grasslands; 900-1500 m.

Endemic.

The four localities for this species are geographically separate; the morphological differences among plants at these sites are reflected chiefly in ornamentation of the lemma: prickle-toothed at all sites but hairs also present at Maungaharuru and Mt Maungapohatu; ovary apex glabrous at Mt Maungapohatu, hairy elsewhere. The range in size and the extent of stolon development varies quite considerably. An attempt to resolve the confusion among collecting dates of specimens from Mt Maungapohatu at CHR and AK is in Connor (1998 op. cit. p. 344); it is thought that L. M. Cranwell Jan. 1932 is the correct date for the only collections made there and that the specimens in CHR have incorrect labels.