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Manual of the New Zealand Flora.

19. Dichelachne, Endi

19. Dichelachne, Endi.

Tall slender grasses. Leaves narrow, flat or convolute. Spikelets 1-flowered, numerous, arranged in long and narrow usually dense panicles rhachilla disarticulating above the 2 outer glumes, very slightly or not at all produced beyond the flower. Glumes 3; 2 outer subequal or slightly unequal, empty, persistent, narrow, sharply acuminate, keeled, membranous; 3rd or flowering glume almost as long, keeled, entire or shortly 2-fid, furnished with a long flexuous awn inserted on the back just below the tip, base of the glume with a hairy callus. Palea slightly shorter than the glume, narrow, 2-nerved. Stamens 2–3. Styles short, distinct; stigmas plumose. Grain narrow, enclosed in the slightly hardened flowering glume and palea.

The genus is confined to the two following species, both of which extend to Australia and Tasmania.
Panicle dense. Spikelats ⅓ in. Awn 1 in., not twisted at the base 1. D. crinita.
Panicle lax. Spikelets ¼ in. Awn ½–¼ in., usually twisted at the base 2. D. sciurea.
1.D. crinita, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 293.—Annual. Culms tufted, tall, slender, erect, 2–3 ft. high, leafy at the base. Leaves much shorter than the culms, flat or convolute, glabrous or the lower ones sometimes softly pubescent; margins smooth or slightly scaberulous sheaths grooved, the upper rather long; ligules short, broad. Panicle very dense and spike-like, 3–6 in. long or more, bristling with the numerous awns which almost conceal the spikelets, pale-green, shining; branches numerous, short, erect. Spikelets ¼–⅓ in. long. Two outer glumes more or less unequal, very narrow, long-acuminate, membranous or hyaline, keel green and scabrous; 3rd or flowering glume distinctly shorter, convolute, smooth or slightly rough, produced into a hyaline entire or 2-fid tip; awn very long, about ¼ in., straight or flexuous, not twisted at the base. Palea about ¼ shorter than the flowering glume, linear, 2-nerved.—Handb. N.Z. Fl. 326; Fl. Tasm. ii. 111; Benth. page 874Fl. Austral. vii. 574; Buch. N.Z. Grasses, t. 15. D. Hookeriana and D. Forsteriana, Trin. and Rupr. in Mem. Acad. Petersb. Sèr. vi. 5 (1842), 3, 4. Agrostis crinita, R. Br. Prodr. 170; A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 136; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 246; Raoul, Choix, 39. Anthoxanthum crinitum, Forst. Prodr. n. 18.

Var. intermedia, Hack. MSS.—Rather more slender; panicle narrower and laxer. A passage form into D. sciurea.

North and South Islands, Stewart Island, Chatham Islands: Plentiful in dry open situations throughout. Sea-level to 3000 ft. Also abundant in Australia and Tasmania.

2.D. sciurea, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 294.—Smaller than D. crinita and more slender. Culms tufted, 1–2 ft. high, slender, quite glabrous. Leaves chiefly at the base of the culms and much shorter than them, narrow, flat or convolute, sometimes almost setaceous, glabrous or the lower ones pubescent; sheaths smooth; ligules short, broad. Panicle 3–6 in. long, much more lax and open than in D. crinita; branches slender, capillary, scabrid. Spikelets ¼ in. long, rarely more. Two outer glumes equal or nearly so, long-acuminate, margins hyaline, keel smooth or scabrid 3rd or flowering glume nearly as long, convolute, smooth or slightly scabrous, entire or 2-fid at the tip; awn ½–¾ in. long, flexuous, usually but not invariably twisted at the base, inserted on the back of the glume close to the tip. Palea narrow-linear, 2-fid.—Handb. N.Z. Fl. 326 Fl. Tasm. ii. 1ll, t. 158A Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 574; Buch. N.Z. Grasses, t. xvi. (in part). D. Sieberiana, Trin. and Rupr. in Mem. Acad. Petersb. Ser. vi. 5 (1842) 2. D. montana, Endl. Prodr. Fl. Ins. Norf. 24. Agrostis sciurea, R. Br. Prodr. 171. Stipa micrantha, Cav. Ic. v. 42; F. Muell. in Journ. Bot.(1878) 327 (not of Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 566).

Var. inæquiglumls, Hack. MSS.—Panicle with longer flaccid branches; spikelets more laxly arranged. Two outer glumes unequal, acute but not cuspidate, keel sharply scabrid awn of flowering glume almost apical, not twisted at the base.

North Island: From the North Cape to Wellington; not so plentiful as D. crinita. South Island: Has been recorded from Marlborough (Buchanan), Canterbury (Armstrong), and Greymouth (Kirk), but I have seen no specimens.

Also in Australia, Tasmania, and Norfolk Island.