Slender perennial grasses; culms simple or branched. Leaves flat or convolute when dry. Spikelets laterally compressed, 1-flowered, pedicellate, arranged in a narrow lax panicle; rhachilla disarticulating above the 2 outer glumes. Glumes 5; the 2 outer very small, persistent; 3rd and 4th long, narrow, produced into long awns, the 4th much the longest; 5th or flowering glume shorter, acute, not awned. Palea linear. Lodicules 2, rather large, thin. Stamens 4 or 2. Styles distinct; stigmas plumose. Grain enclosed within the flowering glume and palea but free from them.
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M. stipoides,
R. Br. Prodr. 210.—Rhizome creeping and rooting, branched. Culms numerous from the rhizome, often branched below, erect or ascending, slender, glabrous, 1–2 ft. high or more.
Leaves rather short, 3–9 in. long, ⅛–⅕ in. broad, thin, flat, acute, glabrous, finely scaberulous on the midrib beneath; ligules very short, reduced to a mere rim; sheaths thin, usually finely pubescent. Panicle narrow, slender, lax, branched at the base, 3–9 in. long; branches erect, capillary. Spikelets narrow, about ⅓ in. long without the awns, on filiform pedicels. Two outer glumes minute, persistent, many times smaller than the 3rd and 4th, and separated from them by an elongated bearded portion of the rhachilla; 3rd and 4th long and narrow, produced into slender awns, the 4th longer than the 3rd, its awn often more than 1 in. long, nerves 5–7, with the awns rough and scabrid. Flowering glume much shorter, acuminate but not awned, faintly 7-nerved. Palea linear. Lodicules large. Stamens 4.—
Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 289;
Handb. N.Z. Fl. 320;
Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 552;
Buch. N.Z. Grasses, t. 2.
North Island: Not uncommon throughout, but most plentiful in lowland districts.
South Island, Stewart Island: In various localities, chiefly near the sea. Sea-level to 2000 ft.
Widely distributed in Australia, ranging from Queensland to Tasmania and West Australia. It is a most; valuable pasture and lawn grass, deserving of far more attention than has hitherto been given to it.
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M. avenacea,
Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 320.—Culms tufted, tall, stout, erect or spreading, compressed, glabrous, 1–4 ft. high. Leaves mostly towards the base of the culms and shorter than them, broad, flat, ¼–½ in. diam., glabrous, striate, scaberulous on the margins and principal veins; sheaths long, smooth, deeply striate; ligules broad, bearded at the sides. Panicle 1–2 ft. long, sparingly branched, compound, lax, nodding, pale-green; branches long, slender, almost capillary, angled, scaberulous. Spikelets very narrow, about ⅓ in. long without the awns, usually 1 in. with them; pedicels slender, thickened above. Two lowest glumes small, many times less than the 3rd and 4th, not separated from them by a conspicuous interspace as in
M. stipoides, 1-nerved, obtuse, sometimes notched at the tip, the outer one half the length of the 2nd; 3rd and 4th long, narrow, empty, 5–7-nerved, rough and scabrous, hairy at the base, produced into long awns. Flowering glume much shorter than the 4th, acuminate but not awned, faintly 5–7-nerved. Palea linear, acuminate, 1-nerved. Stamens 2.—
Buch. N.Z. Grasses, t. 3. Diplax avenacea,
Raoul, Choix, 11, t. 3;
Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 289.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island: Abundant in woods throughout. Sea-level to 2500 ft. December–January.
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M. polynoda,
Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 320.—Culms 3–8 ft. long, much branched, straggling, often scrambling among shrubs and bushes, hard, solid, terete, as thick as a goose-quill at the base, quite glabrous, conspicuously swollen at the nodes. Leaves numerous, rather distant, the lowermost reduced to sheaths, upper
3–9 in. long, 1/10–⅕ in. broad, linear, finely acuminate, flat, striate, margins scaberulous; sheaths smooth, grooved; ligules short, with a few long hairs on each side. Panicle usually reduced to a simple raceme 1–2½ in. long with few spikelets, but sometimes 3–3½ in., the lower portion with 1 or 2 short erect 2–3-spiculate branches. Spikelets narrow, compressed, ½–¾ in. long with the awns. Two lowest glumes small, whitish, many times less than the 3rd and 4th, not; separated from them by a distinct interspace, the lowest ⅓ the length of the 2nd; 3rd and 4th narrow, unequal, empty, awned, rough and scabrous on the sides and awn, hairy at the base. Flowering glume shorter than the 4th, acuminate, 5–7-nerved. Palea linear, 1-nerved. Stamens 4.—
Buch. N.Z. Grasses, t. 4. M. ramosissima,
Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxi. (1889) 105. Diplax polynoda,
Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 290.
North Island: Auckland—Whangarei Heads,
T. F. C.; Great Barrier Island,
Kirk! Cabbage Bay,
Adams; Coromandel,
T. F. C.; Thames,
Kirk; Te Aroha,
Adams. Hawke's Bay—Dannevirke, base of the Ruahine Range,
Colenso!
South Island: Nelson—Motueka Valley,
T. F. C. Canterbury—
Armstrong. Otago—Near Dunedin,
Buchanan! Petrie! Sea-level to 1500 ft. December–January.
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