Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Poales Small
Family
Gramineae Juss.
Genus
Austrostipa S.W.L.Jacobs & J.Everett
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Austrostipa stipoides (Hook.f.) S.W.L.Jacobs & J.Everett, Telopea 6: 589 (1996)
Synonymy:
  • ≡ Dichelachne stipoides Hook.f., Bot. Antarct. Voy. II. (Fl. Nov.-Zel.) Part I, 249, t. 66 (1853)
  • ≡ Stipa stipoides (Hook.f.) Veldkamp (1974)
  • = Stipa teretifolia Steud. (1854)
Vernacular Name(s):
Buggar Grass; Coastal immorality grass
 Description

Tall, caespitose, stiff, erect perennial with swollen bases occasionally with elongating basal internodes and branching at nodes; branching intravaginal; cataphylls small. Leaf-sheath to 25 cm, smooth, very short hairs often between ridges. Ligule 3–7 mm, decurrent, symmetrical or asymmetrical, nerved, subacute. Leaf-blade to 60 cm × 0.7 mm diam., rigid, folded but appearing terete, abaxially glabrous, sharply acicular, adaxially with abundant short white hairs and some prickle-teeth towards base. Culm to 1 m, internodes glabrous, nodes concealed. Panicle to 20 cm, narrow; branches ascending; rachis, branches and pedicels glabrous. Glumes ± equal, to 20 mm, 3-nerved, produced into awn-like processes ± 1 mm, or acuminate, > awn column. Lemma 8–10 mm long, fuscous, hairs white or brown (± 2 mm), lobes hairy, 1–2 mm; coma to 3 mm; awn to 35 mm, short stiff hairy, 1-geniculate, column strongly twisted to 10 mm, arista to 25 mm. Palea with abundant long internerve hairs, few elsewhere, entire or shallowly lobed, apex shortly ciliate. Callus to 1.5 mm, hairs to 1.5 mm. Lodicules 3, usually 1–2-nerved, acute, ligulate, to 2.5 mm, often 1- or 2-fid, adhering to caryopsis. Anthers apically and basally caudate, to 7.0 mm. Plate 5C.

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

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Non-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]
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.
Jacobs, S. W. L.; Everett, J.; Connor, H. E.; Edgar, E. 1989: Stipoid grasses in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 27: 569–582.
Jacobs, S.W.L.; Everett, J. 1996: Austrostipa, a new genus, and new names for Australasian species formerly included in Stipa (Gramineae). Telopea 6(4): 579–595.
Weeds Key – interactive key to the weed species of New Zealand