Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Poales Small
Family
Gramineae Juss.
Genus
Anemanthele Veldkamp
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Anemanthele lessoniana (Steud.) Veldkamp (1985)
Synonymy:
  • ≡ Agrostis lessoniana Steud. (1840)
  • ≡ Oryzopsis lessoniana (Steud.) Veldkamp (1974)
  • = Agrostis procera A.Rich., Essai Fl. Nouv.-Zél., 125 (1832) nom. illeg.
  • = Agrostis rigida A.Rich., Essai Fl. Nouv.-Zél., 124 (1832) nom. illeg.
  • = Apera arundinaceae Hook.f., Bot. Antarct. Voy. II. (Fl. Nov.-Zel.) Part I, 295, t. 67 (1853)
  • ≡ Stipa arundinacea (Hook.f.) Benth. (1881)
  • = Dichelachne procera Steud. (1854)
  • = Dichelachne rigida Steud. (1854)
  • ≡ Oryzopsis rigida (Steud.) Zotov, Trans. Roy. Soc. New Zealand 73: 235 (1943)
  • = Apera purpurascens Colenso, Trans. & Proc. New Zealand Inst. 21: 106 (1888 [1889])
Vernacular Name(s):
Gossamer grass; Hunangāmoho; Toetoe hunangāmoho; Toetoe hungāamoho
 Description

Densely tufted, wiry perennial with leaves drooping above, delicate nodding panicles, and short, creeping rhizome; branching extravaginal. Leaf-sheath to 15 cm, firm, outer margin usually ciliate. Ligule to 1.5 mm, usually asymmetrical, entire to fimbriate. Leaf-blade to 45 cm × 6 mm, stiff, involute or flat, abaxially shining, minutely scabrid towards filiform tip, adaxially smooth, dull, margins scabrid. Culm to 75 cm, simple, erect to nodding above, internodes smooth, rarely scaberulous below panicle, nodes glabrous. Panicle to 60 cm; branches capillary, spreading, in distant whorls; rachis slender, smooth, rarely scaberulous, branches and pedicels scaberulous. Spikelets laterally subcompressed, pale green to purplish. Glumes subequal, 2.5–3.5 mm, hyaline, acute to acuminate, keel scabrid; lower linear-lanceolate, 1-nerved, upper elliptic-lanceolate, 1–3-nerved. Flower ☿. Lemma 2 mm, 3-nerved, firmly membranous, elliptic-oblong, smooth below, scaberulous above, lobes minute, margins contiguous; awn to 8 mm, fine, scabrid, curved, caducous. Palea < lemma, weakly nerved, glabrous. Callus minute, rounded, ringed by very minute hairs. Lodicules 2, ligulate, glabrous, nerveless, 0.5 mm. Anther 1, 0.8–1.4 mm, apically thickened. Caryopsis c. 1.5 mm, very swollen, protruding from the anthoecium; hilum elliptic, < ½ length of caryopsis. 2n= 40–44. Plate 6D.

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

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
 Bibliography
Colenso, W. 1889: A description of some newly-discovered Phænogamic plants; being a further contribution towards the making known the botany of New Zealand. Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute 21: 80–108.
de Lange, P.J.; Norton, D.A.; Courtney, S.P.; Heenan, P.B.; Barkla, J.W.; Cameron, E.K.; Hitchmough, R.; Townsend, A.J. 2009: Threatened and uncommon plants of New Zealand (2008 revision). New Zealand Journal of Botany 47: 61–96. [Declining]
de Lange, P.J.; Norton, D.A.; Heenan, P.B.; Courtney, S.P.; Molloy, B.P.J.; Ogle, C.C.; Rance, B.D. 2004: Threatened and uncommon plants of New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 42(1): 45–76.
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. [Relic]
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. [Nationally Vulnerable]
Hooker, J.D. 1852–1853 ("1853"): The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage of H.M. Discovery Ships Erebus and Terror in the Years 1839–1843, under the command of Captain Sir James Clark Ross. II. Flora Novae-Zelandiae. Part I. Flowering plants. Lovell Reeve, London.
Jacobs, S. W. L.; Everett, J.; Connor, H. E.; Edgar, E. 1989: Stipoid grasses in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 27: 569–582.
Richard, A. 1832: Essai d'une Flore de la Nouvelle Zélande. In: Dumont d'Urville, J. Voyage de découvertes de l'Astrolabe. Botanique. Tastu, Paris.
Zotov, V.D. 1943: Certain Changes in the Nomenclature of New Zealand Species of Gramineae. Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand 73: 233–238.