Flora of New Zealand Series

≡Glyceria stricta Hook.f., Fl. N.Z. 1: 304 (1853)

≡Atropis stricta (Hook.f.) Hack. in Cheeseman Man. N.Z. Fl. 914  (1906)

≡Puccinellia stricta (Hook.f.) Blomforma stricta (autonym Allan and Jansen 1939 op. cit. p. 266); 

Lectotype: K! Gunn 1463 [Tasmania] Launceston, marsh, 24.12.1844 (designated by Edgar 1996 op. cit. p. 23).

=Atropis stricta var. suborbicularis Hack. in Cheeseman Man. N.Z. Fl. 915  (1906)

≡Puccinellia stricta var. suborbicularis (Hack.) Allan et Jansen, T.R.S.N.Z. 69: 266 (1939); 

Holotype: W 10913! D. Petrie Oamaru, North Otago (No 1483 to Hackel).

=P. stricta forma luxurians Allan et Jansen, T.R.S.N.Z. 69: 266 (1939); 

Lectotype: L 956.179 578 (Herb. Jansen et Wachter no. 44268)! D. Petrie salt meadow at Thames, Auckland Province, North Island [Nov 1904] (designated by Edgar 1996 op. cit. p. 23).

=P. stricta forma pumila Allan et Jansen, T.R.S.N.Z. 69: 266 (1939); 

Lectotype: L 956.179 583 (Herb. Jansen et Wachter no. 44270)! V. D. Zotov Island Bay, Wellington, North Island, in soil filled pockets of rock near high-tide mark, [10] Dec 1928 (designated by Edgar 1996 op. cit. p. 23).

Light bluish green or rarely pale yellow-green perennial tufts, (2.5)-10-50-(65) cm, with stiff culms and leaves, or with finer and less rigid leaves; branching intravaginal. Leaf-sheath glabrous, submembranous to subcoriaceous, ± distinctly ribbed, light brownish to purplish. Ligule 0.7-1.5-(2) mm, glabrous, rounded to truncate, or ± tapered centrally and acute. Leaf-blade 1-12 cm × c. 0.5 mm diam., involute, rigid and erect, or finer and softer, abaxially glabrous, adaxially sparsely scabrid on ribs, or sometimes densely scabrid throughout; margins scabrid, narrowed to fine acute tip. Culm (2)-5-20-(40) cm, erect, hidden by uppermost leaf-sheath at flowering, later visible, internodes glabrous. Panicle (2)-4.5-14.5-(20) × 0.2-5.5 cm, at first narrow-linear, racemose above, with few, erect, usually scabrid branches below, later more open with ± spreading branches naked below. Spikelets 3.5-9-(10.5) mm, 2-10-flowered, narrow, almost terete, light green to purplish. Glumes often quite unequal, elliptic-oblong, margins and sometimes midnerve minutely ciliate near apex; lower (0.6)-0.8-2.3 mm, 1-nerved, subacute to subobtuse, upper (1.3)-2-3.5 mm, 3-nerved, subobtuse to obtuse. Lemma (2)-2.5-3-(4) mm, 5-nerved, broad-elliptic, with very minute hairs at base not usually visible at ×10, and occasionally a few minute hairs on nerves near base, midnerve usually not quite reaching finely ciliate, obtuse apex. Palea ≤ lemma, apex bifid, keels scabrid in upper ⅔. Rachilla 0.5-1 mm. Anthers 0.4-1 mm. Caryopsis 1-1.8 × 0.4-0.7 mm.

N.: southwards from Auckland City, but not recorded from Bay of Plenty, Gisborne, or Taranaki; S.: coastal Nelson, and on eastern to south-eastern coasts throughout, inland in Otago near Sutton, and in Central Otago; St. Salt marsh, and sandy or stony ground at high tide level; inland in salt pans, 100-600 m.

Indigenous.

Also indigenous to Australia.

Puccinellia stricta is very variable in height and appearance. Allan and Jansen (1939 op. cit. p. 266) separated N.Z. plants into two forms of widespread distribution: forma luxurians, with culms 30-40 cm and leaf-blades to 15 cm, and forma pumila with culms ± 10 cm and shorter leaf-blades. It is impossible to delimit two distinct groups in N.Z. on that basis.

Allan and Jansen (1939 op. cit. p. 265) indicated for P. stricta that "Gunn's specimens [at K]... must be taken as the type". Although Edgar (1996 op. cit. pp. 23-24) stated that Allan and Jansen chose the lectotype, they did not, in fact, cite the actual specimen.