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Manual of the New Zealand Flora.

9. Ehrharta, Thunb

9. Ehrharta, Thunb.

Perennial or annual grasses, of very varied habit. Leaves flat or convolute. Spikelets laterally compressed, 1-flowered, pedicellate, arranged in a panicle or simple raceme; rhachilla disarticulating above the 2 lowest glumes, obscurely produced above the flower. Glumes 5; the 2 lowest short, empty; 3rd and 4th longer, awned, frequently hairy at the base, also empty, 4th the longest, often with a callus at its base; 5th or flowering glume shorter, thinner, never awned, usually with a callus or tuft of hairs at its base. Palea narrow, keeled, finely and closely 2-nerved. Stamens 6 in the great majority of the species, 2 only in the New Zealand ones. Styles short or rather long; stigmas plumose. Grain ovoid or elliptic, compressed, enclosed within the flowering glume and palea, but free from them.

A genus of 27 species, all but the two following natives of South Africa, one of them extending northwards to eastern tropical Africa and Arabia.

Culms 6–18 in. Panicle 2–4 in., many-spiculate. Two lowest empty glumes acute 1. E. Colensoi.
Culms 1–5 in. Raceme small, of 2–5 spikelets. Two lowest empty glumes broad, obtuse 2. E. Thomsoni.
1.E. Colensoi, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 288, t. 65A.—Culms numerous, tufted, branched at the base, glabrous, many-noded, 6–18 in. high. Leaves numerous, distichous, suberect, the upper ones 4–6 in. long by ⅙–⅕ in. broad, flat, faintly nerved, glabrous, tapering from the base to a slender point, the lowermost with the blades much reduced in size and almost scale-like; ligules very short, jagged; sheaths short, close, firm, thin, striate, glabrous. Panicles contracted, inclined or drooping, 1½–4 in. long; rhachis slender, smooth; branches short, suberect, in small specimens sometimes reduced to single spikelets. Spikelets compressed, linear-oblong, about ¼ in. long; pedicels short, slender. Two lowest glumes about half the length of the 3rd and 4th respectively, acuminate, 3–5-nerved; 3rd and 4th narrower, awned, silky-hairy at the base, 5–7-nerved. Flowering glume shorter than the 4th and about equal to the 3rd, oblong, obtuse, glabrous. Palea linear; rhachilla produced behind it as a minute appendage.—Handb. N.Z. Fl. 319; Buch. N.Z. Grasses, t. 1.

North Island: Ruahine Mountains, Colenso! H. Hill! Petrie! Mount Egmont, T. F. C.; Tararua Mountains, H. H. Travers! South Island: Nelson—Mount Arthur, Mount Owen, T. F. C.; Mount Rochfort, Mount Faraday, Townson! Canterbury and Westland—Mountains above Arthur's Pass, T. F. C.; Kelly's Hill, Petrie! Otago—Clinton Saddle, Lake Te Anau, Petrie! 3000–5500 ft.

page 852
2.E. Thomsoni, Petrie in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xii. (1880) 356. t. 10.—A small densely tufted species. Culms short, stout, much branched, spreading, quite glabrous, 1–5 in. high. Leaves numerous, distichous, spreading, ⅓–½ in. long, 1/12–⅛ in. broad, lanceolate, acute, strongly nerved; ligule reduced to a mere line; sheaths pale, strongly grooved. Inflorescence reduced to a short stout erect raceme of 2–5 spikelets, sometimes hardly longer than the leaves; pedicels short, stout, often appressed to the rhachis. Spikelets ⅙–⅕ in. long, compressed. Two outer glumes small, subequal, broadly oblong or rounded, obtuse, less than ⅓ as long as the 3rd and 4th respectively; 3rd and 4th ovate-lanceolate, rigid, keeled, awned, 5-nerved, silky at the base, keel and awns minutely scabrid. Flowering glume shorter, oblong, obtuse or subacute, 3–5-nerved. Palea linear. Stamens 1–2.

South Island: Nelson—Mount Rochfort, Dr. Gaze! Townson! Otago—Longwood Range, Kirk! Stewart Island—Port Pegasus, Thomson and Petrie! Kirk! Rakiahua, P. Goyen! Auckland IslandsF. R. Chapman! Sea-level to 4000 ft.

A very curious and distinct little species.