flowered; branches few, short, capillary, scaberulous, the lowermost with 2–3 spikelets, the upper 1-spiculate. Spikelets compressed, pale-green, usually about ½ in. long without the awns, 4–7-flowered. Two outer glumes unequal, small, the upper not one-half the length of the flowering glume above it. Flowering glumes silky at the base, firm and rather rigid when in fruit, 5–7-nerved, scabrous on the back and sides; awn from the middle of the back, long, straight, scabrid, not bent nor twisted. Palea hyaline, 2-nerved, strongly ciliate on the nerves.
North Island: Auckland—Marshes near Waiuku, Carse! Lakes Whangape and Waikare, T.F.C.; Lake Waihi, Kirk! Taranaki—Swamps near New Plymouth, T.F.C.
Distinguished from the Australian A. Neesii by the weak decumbent habit, smaller panicle, narrower spikelets, shorter outer glumes, and straight awn.
23. DANTHONIA, D.C.
Perennial or rarely annual grasses. Leaves very variable. Spikelets 3- to many-flowered, laterally compressed, arranged in a lax or dense panicle, rarely in a simple raceme; rhachilla disarticulating above the 2 outer glumes and between the flowering glumes. produced beyond the uppermost flower. Two outer glumes persistent, empty, equal or more or less unequal, keeled, acute or acuminate, 3–7-nerved, as long as the whole spikelet or slightly shorter. Flowering glumes 2 or more, rounded on the back, usually ciliate on the margins, 5–9-nerved, hairy, the hairs often collected into variously arranged tufts, 2-lobed at the tip, the lobes often produced into short awn-like bristles; awn from the sinus between the lobes, usually long and rigid and twisted, rarely reduced to a mucro; callus at the base of the glume, hairy. Palea broad, hyaline, 2-keeled. Lodicules 2. Stamens 3. Styles distinct; stigmas plumose. Grain oblong, ellipsoid, or obovoid, free within the flowering glume and palea.
Species not far from 100, widely dispersed in both hemispheres, but chiefly in the south temperate zone, particularly abundant in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. Of the 13 species found in New Zealand, 2 extend to Australia, the rest are endemic.
| * Two outer glumes shorter than the spikelet, very rarely almost equalling it. | |
| † Culms tall, stout. Panicle large; spikelets numerous. | |
| Culms 2–5 ft. Leaves ¼–⅓ in., often pilose. Panicle 6–18 in., lax. Awn straight, not flattened nor twisted at the base | 1. D. Cunninghamii. |
| Culms 1½–2 ft. Leaves pilose. Panicle 3–4 in., lax. Flowering glume with separate tufts of hairs on the margins and back | 2. D. ovata. |
