Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Poales Small
Family
Gramineae Juss.
Genus
Rytidosperma Steud.
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Rytidosperma australe (Petrie) Connor & Edgar, New Zealand J. Bot. 25: 166 (1987)
Synonymy:
  • ≡ Triodia australis Petrie, Trans. & Proc. New Zealand Inst. 22: 442 (1889 [1890])
  • ≡ Erythranthera australis (Petrie) Zotov, New Zealand J. Bot. 1: 125 (1963)
  • = Triodia australis var. mucronulata Hack. in Cheeseman, Man. New Zealand Fl. 897 (1906)
  • ≡ Danthonia petriei var. mucronulata (Hack.) Zotov, Trans. Roy. Soc. New Zealand 73: 234 (1943)
  • = Danthonia petriei Zotov, Trans. Roy. Soc. New Zealand 73: 234 (1943)
 Description

Low-growing and wiry, or taller, softer and more slender tufts, shortly- to sometimes long-rhizomatous; leaves ≤ culms, disarticulating at ligule; branching intravaginal, shoots rather stout below. Leaf-sheath pale to dark grey, cream to purplish above, much broader than leaf-blade, entirely glabrous, or more often several scattered long fine hairs above; apical tuft of hairs to 1.5 mm, occasionally extending dorsally below blade. Ligule to 0.5 mm. Leaf-blade to 8–(18) cm, flat to folded; margins inrolled, glabrous, or with a few scattered hairs below. Culm (1.5)–3–15–(35) cm, erect or spreading, internodes glabrous. Panicle 0.5–2–(3.5) cm; rachis and pedicels scabrid, sometimes with fine hairs at nodes and on pedicels. Spikelets 3–4-flowered, upper florets often exceeding glumes. Glumes green to purple-tinged, ovate, rounded, slightly notched or subacute, rarely a few scattered hairs, ± equal, (2)–2.5–3–(4) mm; lower 5-nerved, upper 3–5-nerved. Lemma 1.5–1.8 mm, 7–(9)-nerved, ± orbicular, glabrous, or rarely a single pair of marginal hair tufts at level of ciliate rachilla apex, notched, with a minute mucro c. 0.1 mm in the notch. Palea 1.5–1.8–(2) mm, = lemma, ± elliptic, interkeel glabrous. Callus 0.1–0.3 mm, glabrous. Rachilla c. 0.5 mm. Anthers 0.4–0.7 mm, red. Caryopsis c. 0.8 × 0.5 mm; embryo to 0.5 mm; hilum c. 0.2 mm.

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

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Non-endemic)
 Bibliography
Cheeseman, T.F. 1906: Manual of the New Zealand Flora. Government Printer, Wellington.
Connor, H. E.; Edgar, E. 1979: Rytidosperma Steudel (Notodanthonia Zotov) in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 17: 311–337.
Connor, H.E.; Edgar, E. 1987: Name changes in the indigenous New Zealand flora, 1960–1986 and Nomina Nova IV, 1983–1986. New Zealand Journal of Botany 25: 115–170.
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. [Not Threatened]
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. 1890 ("1889"): Descriptions of New Native Plants. Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute 22: 439–443.
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.
Zotov, V.D. 1963: Synopsis of the grass subfamily Arundinoideae in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 1: 78–136.