Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Poales Small
Family
Gramineae Juss.
Genus
Poa L.
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Poa billardierei (Spreng.) St.-Yves, Candollea 3: 284 (1927)
Synonymy:
  • ≡ Triodia billardierei Spreng., Syst. Veg., ed. 16 [Sprengel] 1, 330 (1824)
  • = Festuca littoralis Labill., Nov. Holl. Pl. 1, 22 (1805)
  • ≡ Schedonorus littoralis (Labill.) P.Beauv., Ess. Agrostogr. 99, 163, 177 (1812)
  • ≡ Austrofestuca littoralis (Labill.) E.B.Alexeev (1976)
  • = Arundo triodioides Trin., Species Graminum t. 351 (1836)
  • ≡ Poa triodioides (Trin.) Zotov, Trans. Roy. Soc. New Zealand 73: 236 (1943) nom. superfl.
  • = Schedonorus billardiereanus Nees, London Journal of Botany 2: 419 (1843) nom. superfl.
  • = Schedonorus littoralis var. β minor Hook.f., Bot. Antarct. Voy. II. (Fl. Nov.-Zel.) Part I, 310 (1853)
 Description

Dense, very stiff, rhizomatous tussocks, to 100 cm, with pungent leaves usually overtopping culms. Leaf-sheath light brown to grey-brown, coriaceous, striate, glabrous. Ligule 0.7–1 mm, asymmetrical, stiffly membranous, ciliate. Leaf-blade 10–60 cm ×c. 1 mm diam., inrolled, wiry, abaxially glabrous, adaxially densely minutely pubescent. Culm (8)–12–50 cm, erect, internodes glabrous. Panicle (3.5)–6–25 cm, stiff, erect, contracted, almost spike-like; rachis glabrous, branches erect, pedicels with dense stiff minute hairs and prickle-teeth. Spikelets 9–16 mm, 3–6-flowered, greenish brown. Glumes almost equal, coriaceous, elliptic-lanceolate, acute, minutely prickle-toothed above, densely prickle-toothed on keel; lower 5.5–10 mm, (3)–5-nerved, upper 6.5–11 mm, 3–(5)-nerved; margins finely prickle-toothed. Lemma 6–11.5 mm, 5–7–(9)-nerved, elliptic-lanceolate, obtuse or with shortly excurrent midnerve, ± covered with very dense, stiff prickle-teeth, often minutely hairy on nerves below. Palea 5–8 mm, subcoriaceous, keels very densely, short, stiff hairy, interkeel and flanks minutely prickle-toothed. Lodicules c. 1.5 mm, bilobed, ciliate. Callus ringed by short, stiff hairs. Rachilla sparsely to densely hairy especially near apex. Anthers (1.5)–2–3 mm. Gynoecium: ovary c. 2 mm; stigma-styles c. 3 mm. Caryopsis 2.5–4 ×c. 1 mm. 2n= 28. Plate 5B.

[From: Edgar and Connor (2000) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 5 as Austrofestuca littoralis (Labill.) E.B.Alexeev]

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Non-endemic)
 Bibliography
Candollea
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. [as Austrofestuca littoralis (Labill.) E.B.Alexeev] [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. [as Austrofestuca littoralis (Labill.) E.B.Alexeev]
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. [Declining]
Edgar, E.; Connor, H.E. 2010: Flora of New Zealand Volume V Grasses. Edition 2. Manaaki Whenua Press.
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.
Labillardière, J.J.H. de 1804: Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen. Vol. 1(1). Huzard, Paris.
London Journal of Botany
Palisot de Beauvois, A.M.F.J. 1812: Essai d'une Nouvelle Agrostographie. Paris.
Soreng, R.J.; Gillespie, L.J.; Jacobs, S.W.L. 2009: Saxipoa and Sylvipoa - two new genera and a new classification for Australian Poa (Poaceae: Poinae). Australian Systematic Botany 22: 401–412.
Species Graminum
Sprengel, C.P.J. 1824: Systema vegetabilium [Caroli Linnaei ... ]. Editio decima sexta. Vol. 1. Göttingen.
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.