Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Poales Small
Family
Gramineae Juss.
Genus
Zoysia Willd.
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Zoysia pauciflora Mez, Feddes Repertorium Specierum Novarum Regni Vegetabilis 17: 145 (1921)
Synonymy:
  • = Nardus digynus Sol., Prim. Fl. N. Zeal. 409
  • = Zoysia pungens Willd. ex Hook.f., Bot. Antarct. Voy. II. (Fl. Nov.-Zel.) Part I, 312 (1853) pro parte
  • = Zoysia planifolia Zotov, New Zealand J. Bot. 9 (1971)
 Description

Rhizome stout, long, 1–1.5 mm diam., shining, light brown; cataphylls smooth, grey or whitish; shoots 10–15 cm, branching several times intravaginally at or above ground. Leaf-sheath shining, white below, purplish above, striate, margins membranous, wide, glabrous. Ligule 0.2–0.3 mm, ciliate. Collar hairs few to many, 2–4 mm, rarely glabrous. Leaf-blade to 10 cm, divergent to erect, folded to flat and 1–2–4 mm wide, abaxially smooth, adaxially finely scabrid on ribs or glabrous; margins thickened, sparsely scabrid, tip blunt. Culm 3–10 cm, terete to laterally compressed, ridged, glabrous, bearing 1 leaf or leaf reduced to sheath, and a minute bract above. Raceme 0.5–2 cm, of (1)–2–5–9 lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, imbricate, spikelets c. 1–1.5 mm wide, frequently congested, rachis and pedicels flattened, scabrid on edges. Glumes indurated, lower glume if present a reduced bract, upper glume 4–6–(7) mm, minutely hairy above and on margins, ± golden ochreous often tinged pinkish at first, nerves 7 very weak; awn 0.5–2–(5) mm, scabrid. Lemma 3–3.75 mm, ovate-lanceolate, 1-nerved, firm-hyaline, glabrous. Palea 2.75–3.5 mm, transparent. Anthers c. 2–2.6 mm, apiculate, filaments ligulate. Gynoecium: ovary 0.75–1 mm; stigma-styles 3.5–5 mm. Caryopsis 1.5–2.0 × 0.75 mm; embryo 0.6–0.75 mm; pericarp thin, detaching with beak. Protogynous.

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

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
 Bibliography
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]
Feddes Repertorium Specierum Novarum Regni Vegetabilis
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.
Solander, D. 1771-1782: Primitiae florae Novae Zelandiae. unpub. MS. in the library, Dept. of Botany,The Natural History Museum, London.
Zotov, V. D. 1971: Zoysia Willd. (Gramineae) in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 9: 639–644.