Puccinellia stricta
Common name
saltgrass
Synonyms
Atropis stricta (Hook.f.) Hack.; Puccinellia stricta (Hook.f.) Blom f. stricta; Atropis stricta var. suborbicularis Hack.; Puccinellia stricta var. suborbicularis (Hack.) Allan et Jansen; Poa stricta f. luxurians Allan et Jansen; Poa stricta f. pumila Allan et Jansen
Family
Poaceae
Flora category
Vascular – Native
Endemic taxon
No
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
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.
PUCSTR
Chromosome number
2n = 14
Current conservation status
The threat classification 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) – more information about this can be found on the NZTCS website 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. Please note, threat classifications are often suggested by authors when publications fall between NZTCS assessment periods – a suggested threat classification status has not been assessed by the NZTCS panel.
Source: NZTCS and licensed by DOC for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
2017 | Not Threatened | Qualifiers: SO
Previous conservation statuses
2012 | Not Threatened
2009 | Not Threatened
2004 | Not Threatened
Distribution
Indigenous. New Zealand: North (southwards from Auckland City, but not recorded from Bay of Plenty, Gisborne, or Taranaki), South (coastal Nelson, and on eastern to south-eastern coasts throughout, inland in Otago near Sutton, and in Central Otago), and Stewart Islands. Also Australia.
Habitat
Coastal to montane. Salt marsh, sandy or stony ground at high tide level; inland on saline soils
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). If you have suggestions for the Wetland Indicator Status Rating, please contact: [Enable JavaScript to view protected content]
FAC: Facultative
Commonly occurs as either a hydrophyte or non-hydrophyte (non-wetlands).
Features
Light bluish green or rarely pale yellow-green perennial tufts, 25-650 mm, with stiff culms and leaves, or with finer and less rigid leaves; branching intravaginal. Leaf-sheaths smooth, submembranous to subcoriaceous, ± distinctly nerved, light brownish to purplish; ligule 0.7-2.0 mm, smooth, rounded to truncate, or ± tapered at centre and acute; leaf-blades 10-120 mm, involute, c.0.5 mm diameter in rolled state, rigid and erect, or finer and softer, abaxially smooth, adaxially sparsely scabrous on nerves, or sometimes densely scabrous throughout, margins scabrous, narrowed to a fine acute tip. Culms 20-400 mm, enclosed by uppermost leaf-sheaths at flowering, later visible, smooth, erect. Panicle 20-200 × 2-55 mm, at first narrow-linear, racemose above, with few, erect, usually scabrous branches below, later more open with ± spreading branches bare at base. Spikelets 3.5-10.5 mm, 2-10-flowered, narrow, almost terete, light green to purplish. Glumes often quite unequal, elliptic-oblong, margins and sometimes midnerve minutely ciliate near tip; lower glume 0.6-2.3 mm, 1-nerved, subacute to subobtuse; upper glume 1.3-3.5 mm, 3-nerved, subobtuse to obtuse. Lemma 2-4 mm, 5-nerved, broad-elliptic, with very minute hairs at base not usually visible at ×10, and occasionally a few minute hairs on nerves near base, midnerve usually not quite reaching finely ciliate, obtuse tip. Palea slightly < lemma, bifid, keels scabrous in upper 2/3. Rachilla 0.5-1.0 mm. Anthers 0.4-1.0 mm. Seed 1.0-1.8 × 0.4-0.7 mm.
Manaaki Whenua Online Interactive Key
Similar taxa
Distinguished from other Puccinellia by the intravaginal new shoots; involute leaves; panicle overtopping leaves; upper glume usually 2.0-3.5 mm; lemma with minute hairs near base visible only at high magnification (c.×40); palea keels finely scabrous. Differentiating between Puccinellia stricta and Puccinellia walkeri (which sometime co-occur) can be difficult: the size of the lemma (3-5mm in P. walkeri, usually less or = 3mm in P. stricta) is a good guide. The panicle of P. stricta also tends to open out post-flowering so that obvious branches are visible rather than remaining closely and erectly branched. The palea keel in P. stricta is scabrid but is ciliate in P. walkeri (though, this difference can be small).
Flowering
September - December
Fruiting
October - March
Propagation technique
Easily grown from seed and by division of established plants.
Threats
Not Threatened but uncommon north of the Waikato.
Etymology
puccinellia: After the italian botanist Benedetto Puccinelli (1808 - 1850).
stricta: From the Latin strictus ‘upright, stiff’
Where To Buy
Not Commercially Available
Attribution
Description from Edgar and Connor (2000).
References and further reading
Edgar, E. 1996: Puccinellia Part. (Gramineae: Poeae) in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 34: 17-32.