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  4. Lachnagrostis billardierei subsp. billardierei

Lachnagrostis billardierei subsp. billardierei

Whangapoua, January.<br>Photographer: John Smith-Dodsworth, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
Lachnagrostis billardierei.<br>Photographer: John Sawyer, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
Lachnagrostis billardierei.<br>Photographer: John Sawyer, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
Shag River mouth.<br>Photographer: Mike Thorsen, Licence: All rights reserved.
Shag River mouth.<br>Photographer: Mike Thorsen, Licence: All rights reserved.
Shag River.<br>Photographer: Mike Thorsen, Licence: All rights reserved.
Ligule. Marfells Beach, Marlborough.<br>Photographer: Mike Thorsen, Licence: All rights reserved.
Caryopsis. Marfells Beach, Marlborough.<br>Photographer: Mike Thorsen, Licence: All rights reserved.
Marfells Beach, Marlborough.<br>Photographer: Mike Thorsen, Licence: All rights reserved.
Waitohu Beach, north of Otaki. Nov 2010.<br>Photographer: Robyn Smith, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
Farewell Spit.<br>Photographer: Mike Thorsen, Date taken: 06/01/2014, Licence: All rights reserved.
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Common name

sand wind grass

Synonyms

Agrostis billardierei R.Br., Deyeuxia billardierei (R.Br.) Kunth, Calamagrostis billardierei (R.Br.) Steud.

Family

Poaceae

Authority

Lachnagrostis billardierei (R.Br.) Trin. subsp. billardierei

Flora category

Vascular – Native

Endemic taxon

No

Endemic genus

No

Endemic family

No

Structural class

Grasses

Chromosome number

2n = 56

Current conservation status

  • Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2017

The conservation status of all known New Zealand vascular plant taxa at the rank of species and below were reassessed in 2017 using the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS). This report includes a statistical summary and brief notes on changes since 2012 and replaces all previous NZTCS lists for vascular plants. Authors: By Peter J. de Lange, Jeremy R. Rolfe, John W. Barkla, Shannel P. Courtney, Paul D. Champion, Leon R. Perrie, Sarah M. Beadel, Kerry A. Ford, Ilse Breitwieser, Ines Schönberger, Rowan Hindmarsh-Walls, Peter B. Heenan and Kate Ladley.

2012 | Not Threatened

Previous conservation statuses

2009 | Not Threatened

2004 | Not Threatened

Distribution

Indigenous. Common throughout New Zealand and Australia

Habitat

Mainly coastal (rarely inland). On sand dunes, cobble and boulder beaches, on cliff faces, in free draining sites along estuarine river banks, and fringing coastal ponds and lagoons. Sometimes on limestone or calcareous sandstone bluffs well inland.

Features

Stiffly tufted, glaucous to bluish-green perennial grass, 100-600 mm tall, with capillary-branched panicles sometimes overtopped by leaves. Branching intravaginal. Leaf-sheath papery, with wide membranous margins, closely striate, smooth but sometimes scaberulous above on nerves, light brown to amber. Ligule 1.0-4.5 mm, tapered above, entire to erose, undersides scabrid. Leaf-blade 50-240 x 2.5-10.0 mm, flat, harsh, scaberulous on ribs and on margins throughout, more or less abruptly narrowed to firm, more or less blunt, more or less cucullate apex. Culm 40-400 mm, erect, or decumbent at base, included within uppermost leaf-sheath, internodes densely finely scabrid. Panicle 60-240 x 100-240 mm, purple-green to wine-red, lax, with long, whorled, ascending branches, later spreading and panicle becoming as broad as long; rachis and branches scaberulous, spikelets single at tips of ultimate panicle branchlets, on pedicels thickened above. Spikelets 4-6 mm, pale green, purple-green or red-green. Glumes 1-3-nerved, narrow-lanceolate, acuminate, usually smooth, sometimes sparsely scabrid, margins wide, hyaline, mid-nerve scabrid. Lemma 3-4 mm, more or less two-thirds length of glumes, smooth, or often scabrid above (especially on nerves), membranous, shining, elliptic-lanceolate, lateral nerves excurrent to short awns 0.5-1.0 mm long; central awn 4.5-9.0 mm, fine, geniculate from lower third of lemma 9rarely middorsal). Callus hairs more or less dense, very short, 0.3-0.7 mm, c. one-tenth length of lemma. Rachilla prolongation 0.5-1.0 mm, tipped by a thick tuft of hairs 1.0-1.5 mm and more or less equivalent in length to palea. Lodicules slightly > 0.5 mm, lanceolate, acute. Anthers 0.5-1.0 mm. Seed 1.3-1.8 x 0.5-0.8 mm.

Similar taxa

Distinguished from the other New Zealand species by the intravaginal branches; by the flat leaf-blades, 2.5-10 mm wide; by the spikelets 4-6 mm long; and by the glabrous lemma that is smooth below and often scabrid on the nerves,

Flowering

August - February

Fruiting

December - June

Propagation technique

Easy from fresh seed and rooted pieces. Best in full sun.

Etymology

lachnagrostis: From “lachne” (wool) referring to the distinctive callus hairs of this genus and “agrostis” by which Trinius (1820) actually meant “a grass” (not an Agrostis). So the generic name means “a hairy (woolly) grass” not “a hairy (woolly) Agrostis” as is often incorrectly stated (see Gardner 2014).

billardierei: Named after Jacques Houttou de Labillardiere (1755-1834), 19th century French botanist who described several New Zealand plants

Attribution

Fact Sheet prepared for NZPCN by P.J. de Lange 14 April June 2005. Description modified from Edgar & Connor (2000)

References and further reading

Edgar, E.; Connor, H.E. 2000: Flora of New Zealand. Vol. V. Grasses. Christchurch, Manaaki Whenua Press. 650 pp.

Gardner, R.O. 2014: Notes on the wind grass Lachnagrostis filiformis (Poaceae). Auckland Botanical Society Journal 69: 168-170.

Trinius, C.B. 1820: Fundamenta Agrostographiae. J.G.Huebner, Vienna.

NZPCN Fact Sheet citation

Please cite as: de Lange, P.J. (Year at time of access): Lachnagrostis billardierei subsp. billardierei Fact Sheet (content continuously updated). New Zealand Plant Conservation Network. https://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora/species/lachnagrostis-billardierei-subsp-billardierei/ (Date website was queried)

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