Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Poales Small
Family
Gramineae Juss.
Genus
Agrostis L.
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Agrostis pallescens Cheeseman, Trans. New Zealand Inst. 53: 423 (1921)
Synonymy:
  • = Agrostis muelleri var. paludosa Hack. in Cheeseman, Man. New Zealand Fl. 864 (1906)
 Description

Small, finely rhizomatous tufts 3–5–(20) cm, with fine, pale green or blue-green, to light brown leaves, and narrowly branched, delicate panicles usually scarcely overtopping leaves; branching extravaginal at base, intravaginal above. Leaf-sheath ± hyaline, light green to light brown, glabrous, ribs few, prominent. Ligule 0.1–0.6 mm, truncate, minutely ciliate or erose, abaxially glabrous. Leaf-blade 0.8–2.5 cm × 0.2–0.4 mm diam., narrow-linear, involute, filiform, abaxially smooth except near blunt, minutely scabrid tip, adaxially usually finely scabrid on ribs. Culm slender, erect, internodes glabrous. Panicle 0.6–2–(3) cm, open, ovate to pyramidal, with few, minutely, sparsely ciliate branches each tipped by a single spikelet. Spikelets (1.2)–1.5–2 mm, pale green to light creamy brown, sometimes purplish. Glumes ± equal, and usually ≈ lemma, ovate-lanceolate, subobtuse, keel scabrid near tip, margins sometimes finely ciliate near tip. Lemma 1.2–1.8 mm, glabrous, faintly 5-nerved, ovate, obtuse or almost truncate, awnless. Palea 0.4–0.6 mm, ovate. Lodicules 0.2–0.4 mm. Callus glabrous. Anthers 0.4–0.7–(1) mm. Caryopsis c. 1 × 0.5 mm.

[From: Edgar and Connor (2000) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 5 (second printing).]

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
 Bibliography
Cheeseman, T.F. 1906: Manual of the New Zealand Flora. Government Printer, Wellington.
Cheeseman, T.F. 1921: New species of flowering-plants. Transactions of the New Zealand Institute 53: 423–425.
de Lange, P.J.; Rolfe, J.R.; Barkla J.W.; Courtney, S.P.; Champion, P.D.; Perrie, L.R.; Beadel, S.N.; Ford, K.A.; Breitwieser, I.; Schönberger, I.; Hindmarsh-Walls, R.; Heenan, P.B.; Ladley, K. 2018: Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2017. New Zealand Threat Classification Series. No. 22. [Naturally Uncommon]
de Lange, P.J.; Rolfe, J.R.; Champion, P.D.; Courtney, S.P.; Heenan, P.B.; Barkla, J.W.; Cameron, E.K.; Norton, D.A.; Hitchmough, R.A. 2013: Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2012. New Zealand Threat Classification Series 3. Department of Conservation, Wellington. [Data Deficient]
Edgar, E.; Forde, M. B. 1991: Agrostis in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 29: 139–161.