Nardus stricta
Common name
Mat grass
Family
Poaceae
Flora category
Vascular – Exotic
Structural class
Grasses
NVS code
The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.
NARSTR
Conservation status
Not applicable
Habitat
Acid and damp but not permanently wet soils, e.g. edges of tarns, ephemeral wetlands, subalpine bogs, roadside ditches, damp soil and depressions on semi-natural tussock or pastoral land (Kissling, draft paper).
Wetland plant indicator status rating
Information derived from the revised national wetland plant list prepared to assist councils in delineating and monitoring wetlands (Clarkson et al., 2021 Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research Contract Report LC3975 for Hawke’s Bay Regional Council). The national plant list categorises plants by the extent to which they are found in wetlands and not ‘drylands’. The indicator status ratings are OBL (obligate wetland), FACW (facultative wetland), FAC (facultative), FACU (facultative upland), and UPL (obligate upland).
FAC: Facultative
Commonly occurs as either a hydrophyte or non-hydrophyte (non-wetlands).
Features
A perennial tufted grass. Very rough, dark green to bluish green bristly blades, 4-30 cm long, 0.5-1 mm in diameter, the outer blades spreading out horizontally. A short white firm ligule. No auricle. The tillers are packed on short rhizomes. The leaf sheaths are dull, rough and persistent. Distinctive flower heads have 2 rows of spicules on one side of the panicle, forming a bristle.
Similar taxa
The bristle-like flowerheads are distinctive.
Life cycle
Spreads by rhizome branching and fragmentation. Also seed, particularly when colonising bare ground (Kissling, draft paper).
Year naturalised
1935
Origin
Eurasia
Reason for introduction
Accidental
Etymology
stricta: From the Latin strictus ‘upright, stiff’
Tolerances
Apparently not limited by topography or temperature extremes. Doesn’t seem to grow in areas with less than 500 mm average annual rainfall. Shade intolerant. In native range goes up to 3500 m in altitude.