Class
Order
Family
Genus
Classification
Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Poa foliosa (Hook.f.) Hook.f., Handb. New Zealand Fl. 338 (1864)
Synonymy:
- ≡ Festuca foliosa Hook.f., Bot. Antarct. Voy. I. (Fl. Antarct.) Part I, 99, t. 55 (1845)
- = Poa foliosa (Hook.f.) Hook.f., Handb. New Zealand Fl. 338 (1864) var. poliosa
- = Festuca foliosa var. β Hook.f., Bot. Antarct. Voy. I. (Fl. Antarct.) Part I, 100, t. 55 (1845)
Description
Massive, lush green dioecious tussocks to 1.5 m, from short, narrow, woody stolons, with shoots covered at base by abundant fibrous remnants of sheaths; branching extravaginal; leaf-blades persistent. Leaf-sheath light brown, coriaceous, glabrous, closely striate, keel prominent above. Ligule 1–3 mm, apically glabrous, entire, rounded, abaxially finely scabrid. Leaf-blade 15–40–(50) cm × (1)–3–6 mm, coriaceous, tough, flat, abaxially smooth with prominent midrib and many lateral ribs, adaxially short-scabrid, two prominent ridges along centre; margins thickened, smooth, tip straight-sided, smooth, semi-pungent. Culm 20–40–(60) cm, internodes glabrous. Panicle 10–25 cm, dense, with all branches, except the longer ones, bearing spikelets almost to base; rachis and branches smooth or with very occasional prickle-teeth. Spikelets (5.5)–7–9 mm, (3)–4–6-flowered, light greenish brown. Glumes subequal, long-acuminate, membranous, except for thickened nerves, smooth, but with a few prickle-teeth on nerves above and occasionally on margins; lower 3–5–(6) mm, 1–(3)-nerved, narrow-lanceolate, upper 4–5.5–(6.5) mm, 3-nerved, narrow elliptic-lanceolate. Lemma 5–6–(7) mm, 5-nerved, acute or with midnerve very shortly excurrent, scabrid except near base, midnerve ciliate to more than halfway, outer lateral nerves, internerves, and margins with minute hairs in lower ⅓. Palea 3.5–4.5 mm, keel rather densely ciliate-scabrid, interkeel and flanks with sparse minute hairs and prickle-teeth. Callus with large tuft of crinkled hairs just below midnerve of lemma and a few hairs below lateral nerves. Rachilla c. 0.5 mm, glabrous. Lodicules 0.4–0.7 mm, occasionally hair-tipped. Dioecious: ♂ with anthers (2)–2.5–3.3 mm, gynoecium 0; ♀ with pollen-sterile anthers c. 0.6–1 mm, often on long filaments; stigma-styles c. 2 mm; caryopsis c. 2 mm; rarely ☿. 2n= 28. Plate 4A.
[From: Edgar and Connor (2000) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 5 (second printing).]
Biostatus
Indigenous (Non-endemic)
Bibliography
Cheeseman, T.F. 1925: Manual of the New Zealand Flora. Edition 2. Government Printer, Wellington.
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. [Naturally uncommon]
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.
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. [Naturally Uncommon]
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. [Naturally Uncommon]
Edgar, E. 1986: Poa L. in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 24: 425–503.
Hooker, J.D. 1844–1845: 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. I. Flora Antarctica. Part I. Botany of Lord Auckland’s Group and Campbell’s Island. Reeve, Brothers, London.
Hooker, J.D. 1864: Handbook of the New Zealand Flora: a systematic description of the native plants of New Zealand and the Chatham, Kermadec's, Lord Auckland's, Campbell's and Macquarie's Islands. Part I. Reeve, London.
