Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Poales Small
Family
Gramineae Juss.
Genus
Zoysia Willd.
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Zoysia minima (Colenso) Zotov, Trans. Roy. Soc. New Zealand 73: 237 (1943)
Synonymy:
  • ≡ Gaimardia minima Colenso, Trans. & Proc. New Zealand Inst. 22: 491 (1889 [1890])
 Description

Rhizome stout, long, to 1.5 mm diam., whitish, smooth; cataphylls smooth, grey or whitish; shoots to 5–(10) cm, branching several times intravaginally at or above ground. Leaf-sheath shining white below, purplish above, striate, margins membranous, wide, glabrous. Ligule 0.1–0.2 mm, ciliate. Collar glabrous, swollen, recurved, very rarely with 1–2 long hairs. Leaf-blade 5–30 mm, distinctly divergent, folded, abaxially smooth, adaxially scabrid on ribs; margins incurved, thickened and scabrid. Culm to 2 cm, terete to usually laterally compressed, ridged, usually scabrid on ridges below spikelet otherwise glabrous, bearing 1 leaf or leaf reduced to sheath, and often a minute bract above. Spikelet 1, occasionally 2–3, peduncles narrowly ovate, lanceolate, c. 1 mm wide. Glumes indurated, lower usually absent, if present much reduced, occasionally complete and awned, to c. 4.5 mm, upper glume (3)–3.5–7 mm, minutely scabrid above and on margins, ± golden to golden-brown, nerves 7–9, very weak; awn 0.2–2.5 mm, scabrid. Lemma 3–4.5 mm, ovate-lanceolate, 1-nerved, firm-hyaline, shallowly bifid, glabrous. Palea 3–4 mm. Anthers c. 2 mm. Gynoecium: ovary 0.5–0.75 mm; stigma-styles 7–7.5 mm. Caryopsis 1.5–1.75 mm; embryo 0.75 mm; pericarp detaching with 0.25–0.35 mm beak. Protogynous.

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

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
 Bibliography
Colenso, W. 1890: 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 22: 459–493.
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]
Zotov, V. D. 1971: Zoysia Willd. (Gramineae) in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 9: 639–644.
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.