Class
Order
Family
Genus
Classification
Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Trisetum antarcticum (G.Forst.) Trin. (1831)
Synonymy:
- ≡ Aira antarctica G.Forst., Fl. Ins. Austr. 41 (1786)
- ≡ Avena antarctica (G.Forst.) Roem. & Schult., Syst. Veg. 676 (1817)
- = Trisetum saxeticolum Cockayne & Allan, Trans. New Zealand Inst. 57: 60 (1926 [1927])
Description
Tufts usually dense, to 40 cm, with dull green rather rigid leaves usually reaching or sometimes overtopping the dense, spike-like panicles; branching extravaginal at plant base, sometimes intravaginal above. Leaf-sheath to 4 cm, very minutely pubescent or with extremely minute appressed hairs between ribs. Ligule 0.2–0.6 mm, truncate, erose, often sparsely minutely ciliate, abaxially sometimes minutely prickle-toothed. Leaf-blade 3.5–22 cm × 1.5–3–(4) mm, flat or inrolled, abaxially smooth but scabrid near long-narrowed tip, adaxially ribbed with sparse to dense minute hairs and prickle-teeth on ribs, hairs slightly longer near ligule; margins minutely prickle-toothed. Culm 4–30 cm, internodes glabrous, occasionally a few minute prickle-teeth below panicle. Panicle (2)–4–10–(15) × 0.6–2.5 cm, compact, oblong, very dense, or with some lower branches more obvious and slightly spreading; rachis glabrous, branches and pedicels smooth or with sparse minute prickle-teeth or sometimes minute hairs. Spikelets 4.5–7 mm, greyish green or brownish amber. Glumes unequal, hyaline, keel thickened with sparse long prickle-teeth on upper ½; lower ⅔-⅘ length of upper, linear-lanceolate, upper slightly < spikelet, elliptic; margins with prickle-teeth near acuminate to almost mucronate tip. Lemma 4–6.2 mm, bidentate to shortly bicuspid, papillose, prickle-toothed above and on keel; awn 3.5–6 mm, straight to later recurved, insertion in upper ¼ of lemma. Palea with minute prickle-teeth on keels and usually on margins. Callus hairs to 0.5 mm. Rachilla hairs to 2.5 mm. Lodicules c. 1 mm, glabrous. Anthers 1–1.7 mm. Gynoecium: ovary c. 0.8 mm; stigma-styles to 1.3 mm. Caryopsis 2.5–3 ×c. 0.6 mm.
[From: Edgar and Connor (2000) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 5 (second printing).]
Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
Bibliography
1817: Systema Vegetabilium. Vol. 2.
Cockayne, L.; Allan, H.H. 1927 ("1926"): Notes on New Zealand floristic botany, including descriptions of new species, & c. (No. 5). Transactions of the New Zealand Institute 57: 48–72.
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. [Declining]
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. [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. [Declining]
Edgar, E.; Connor, H.E. 2010: Flora of New Zealand Volume V Grasses. Edition 2. Manaaki Whenua Press.
Forster, J.G.A. 1786: Florulae Insularum Australium Prodromus. Dietrich, Göttingen.
Petrie, D. 1912 ("1911"): Descriptions of New Native Species of Phanerogams. Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute 44: 179–187.
