Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Poales Small
Family
Gramineae Juss.
Genus
Chionochloa Zotov
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Chionochloa ovata (Buchanan) Zotov, New Zealand J. Bot. 1: 104 (1963)
Synonymy:
  • ≡ Danthonia ovata Buchanan, Indig. Grasses of N. Z. t. 29 (2) (1879)
  • = Danthonia planifolia Petrie, Trans. New Zealand Inst. 33: 328 (1901)
 Description

Sparse tussock with shoots clothed in many old, fibrous, entire sheaths; flowering shoot taller than the leaves which eventually disarticulate at ligule; sheaths, culms, spikelets often purpled or golden. Leaf-sheath to 10 cm, persistent, entire, prominently ribbed, interrib hairs minute, apical tuft of hairs to 2 mm. Ligule to 3.5 mm. Leaf-blade to 25 cm × 5 mm, flat, disarticulating at ligule, spiralling above, pungent, abaxially glabrous, adaxially with scattered prickle-teeth; margin smooth or sometimes with prickle-teeth. Culm to 45 cm, internodes glabrous except for hairs below inflorescence. Inflorescence to 10 cm, shortly branched; rachis, branches and pedicels long hairy. Spikelets of up to 8 strongly purpled florets. Glumes > adjacent lemma lobes; lower to 11 mm, 1–5-nerved, acute, sometimes bifid, upper to 16 mm, 3–5–7-nerved, acute. Lemma to 8 mm; hairs dense on margin and aside central nerve, usually glabrous elsewhere, < sinus; lateral lobes to 7 mm acute, or produced into awn up to 5 mm, or long triangular-acute; central awn to 20 mm divergent from 1.5 mm flat column. Palea to 9 mm. Callus to 1 mm, hairs to 3 mm. Rachilla to 0.75 mm. Lodicules to 1 mm. Anthers to 3 mm. Gynoecium: ovary to 1 mm; stigma-styles to 2.5 mm. Caryopsis to 3.25 mm. 2n= 42.

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

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
 Bibliography
Buchanan, J. 1878: The Indigenous Grasses of New Zealand. Vol. Part I & II. Wellington, N.Z.
Connor, H.E. 1991: Chionochloa Zotov (Gramineae) in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 29: 219–283.
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. [Not threatened]
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. [Declining]
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. [Not Threatened]
Petrie, D. 1901: Descriptions of New Native Plants. Transactions of the New Zealand Institute 33: 328–329.
Zotov, V.D. 1963: Synopsis of the grass subfamily Arundinoideae in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 1: 78–136.