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Manual of the New Zealand Flora.
25. Arundo, Linn
25. Arundo, Linn.
Tall perennial reed-like grasses. Culms densely tufted, stout, almost woody at the base. Leaves flat. Spikelets numerous, laterally compressed, 2–7-flowered, arranged in large decompound panicles rhachilla disarticulating above the two outer glumes and between the flowering glumes. Two outer glumes persistent, empty, subequal, lanceolate, acuminate, membranous, glabrous. Flowering glumes ovate-lanceolate, 3–5-nerved, pilose along the back and towards the base with long silky hairs, 2-fid at the apex, with a cuspidate point or awn from between the lobes. Palea short, hyaline, 2-nerved. Lodicules 2, obovate. Stamens 3. Ovary-glabrous styles distinct; stigmas plumose. Grain oblong, free within the flowering glume and palea.
A small genus of 6 or 7 species, dispersed through most tropical and warm-temperate regions. The two species found in New Zealand are endemic.
Two outer glumes including the flowering glumes and their awns. Flowering glumes deeply bifid, the divisions long and bristle-pointed 1. A. conspicua. Two outer glumes shorter than the awns of the flowering glumes. Flowering glumes not so deeply bifid, the divisions scarcely bristle-pointed 2. A. fulvida.
| 1. | A. conspicua,Forst. Prodr. n. 48.—Forming huge dense tussocks with numerous long curving leaves. Culms 3–10 ft. high, as thick as the finger at the base, slender, erect, smooth, hollow. Leaves long, narrow, coriaceous, flat or involute, strongly nerved, smooth or scabrid along the margins and on the nerves of the upper surface; sheaths long, smooth; ligules reduced to a transverse band of short stiff hairs. Panicle very handsome, silky-white or yellowish-white, copiously branched, 1–2 ft. long branches drooping, very many-spiculate, smooth or pilose-scabrid. Spikelets 1–3-flowered, on short capillary pedicels. Two outer glumes subequal, ¾–1½ in. long, longer than or at least equalling the awns of the flowering glumes, narrow-lanceolate, gradually tapering into long page 894acuminate points, membranous, 1-nerved, usually with a very short lateral nerve on each side near the base. Flowering glumes hyaline, 3-nerved, lower half densely clothed with long silky hairs, deeply 2-fid at the tip, the divisions produced into bristle-like awns; central awn from between the divisions, long, slender, scabrid. Palea shorter than the glume, pubescent on the nerves.—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 299; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 331; Buch. N.Z. Grasses, t. 27; Bot. Mag. t. 6232. A. australis, A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 121; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 265. A. Kakao, Steud. Syn. Pl. Gram. 194. Achnatherum conspicuum, Beauv. Agrost. 146. Gynerium zeelandicum, Steud. Syn. Pl. Gram. 198. Calamagrostis conspicua, Gmel. Syst. 172. Agrostis conspicua, Roem. and Schult. Syst. ii. 364; A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 127; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 250; Raoul, Choix, 39.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island, Chatham Islands Abundant throughout in damp lowland situations. Toetoe-Kakaho; culms of, Kakaho. The largest grass in the colony, forming a very characteristic feature of the vegetation in all swampy tracts, river-banks, sandhills, &c. The culms were formerly largely used by the Maoris for lining their meeting-houses, and were often dyed in elaborate patterns. |
| 2. | A. fulvida,Buch. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. vi.(1874) 242.—Habit and general appearance of A. conspicua, but rather smaller, culms seldom more than 6 ft. high. Panicle pale-fulvous, usually more compact, broader and more erect, 1–2 ft. long. Spikelets 1–3-flowered. Two outer glumes shorter, ⅓–⅔ in. long, not drawn out into such long points, and usually considerably shorter than the awns of the flowering glumes. Flowering glumes not so deeply bifid at the tip, the divisions scarcely awned; central awn exserted beyond the outer glumes.—N.Z. Grasses, t. 28. A. conspicua var. fulvida, Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. x. App. xliii.
North and South Islands From the Bay of Islands to Foveaux Strait, not nearly so abundant as A. conspicua. This does not differ from A. conspicua except in the outer glumes not including the awns of the flowering glumes, and in the terminal lobes of the flowering glumes being shorter and scarcely awned. It would probably be better treated as an extreme form of A. conspicua than as a separate species. The widely distributed Phragmites communis,Trin., the common Reed of Europe, has been recorded by Baron Mueller as a native of New Zealand on the strength of a specimen said to have been collected by Dr. Haast at the Grey River, Westland. (Veg. Chath. Is. 61). But it has not been collected by any other explorer, and there are no native specimens in any New Zealand herbarium. Probably Dr. Haast's specimen was not truly indigenous. Phragmites can be distinguished from Arundo by the lowermost flower of the spikelet being male, and by the flowering glume being glabrous, the long silky hairs being confined to the rhachilla. |