Festuca contracta
Common name
Subantarctic fescue
Synonyms
Festuca erecta dUrv.
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.
FESCON
Chromosome number
2n = 42
Current conservation status
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) – 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.
Please note, threat classifications are often suggested by authors when publications fall between NZTCS assessment periods – an interim threat classification status has not been assessed by the NZTCS panel.
- Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2017 . 2018. 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. Department of Conservation. Source: NZTCS and licensed by DOC for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
2017 | Not Evaluated
Previous conservation statuses
2009 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: RR
2004 | Range Restricted
Distribution
Indigenous. In the New Zealand Botanical region known only from Macquarie Island. Also indigenous to Falkland, South Georgia, the Kerguelen Islands, and Tierra del Fuego.
Habitat
Coastal to upland (20–400 m a.s.l.). In grassland and amongst rocks, sometimes on cliff faces.
Detailed description
Tufted tussock with pale, flabellate intravaginal branches of many smooth leaf-blades often exceeding the compact, short, stiffly erect, branched purple suffused inflorescences of many few-flowered, compact spikelets with shortly prickle-toothed lemmas. Shoots dimorphic, narrow if vegetative, swollen if reproductive. Prophyll 40–50 mm, stramineous, pointed, keels antrorsely ciliate, interkeel antrorsely hairy. Branching intravaginal. Leaf-sheath 50–100 mm, glabrous, stramineous, strongly nerved, margins membranous; apical auricles 0.4–0.5 mm, ciliate, symmetrical. Ligule as for auricles. Leaf-blade 120–250 × 0.8–1.0 mm, glaucous, glabrous, stiff, acute, terete or shallowly compressed-terete, adaxially and on margins bearing numerous short, white, antrorse hairs. Culm 120–400 mm long, nodes hidden, internodes finely antrorsely prickle-toothed and very shortly hairy, almost always hidden. Panicle 50–130 mm, narrow, compact, spiciform, with 13–15 nodes obscured by 20–50 spikelets; branches mostly binate, erect, stiff, very close-set, overlapping, > nearest internode, not naked below, basal branch appressed, 20–40 mm, of 5–7 spikelets, uppermost 5–7 solitary, on 1 mm pedicels; rachis, branches and pedicels margins shortly, densely prickle-toothed, elsewhere frequently bearing antrorse, fine hairs. Spikelets 9–12 × 1.5–1.8 mm, narrow, of 3 florets; glumes, lemmas, paleas purple suffused above; lemma included, awns exserted. Glumes ± equal, 8–11 mm, 3-nerved, upper prominently so, centrally green, prickle-teeth on keel and above, margin hyaline, finely ciliate. Lemma 7 mm, lobes small (0.25 mm), 5-nerved sometimes evident, abundant small uniform prickle-teeth present throughout; awn 1.5–2.5 mm. Palea 6.5–7.0 mm, much less than lemma, apex bifid (0.2–0.4 mm), ciliate; keels toothed ± to base, interkeel hairs to base, flanks shortly prickle-toothed in upper ½. Callus 0.1–0.2 mm long, shortly bearded near rachilla; articulation flat. Rachilla 1.00–1.25 mm, shortly, stiffly hairy. Anthers 0.6–0.8 mm, purple. Ovary 1.00–1.25 mm, triangular turbinate, cap thickened, apex glabrous; stigma-styles 2–3 mm; stigmas sparingly branched. Seed 2.7–3.0 mm. Flowers cleistogamous.
Manaaki Whenua Online Interactive Key
Similar taxa
Perhaps closest to Festuca coxii (Petrie) Hack. from which it differs by its taller, erect growth habit, flabellate rather than elongate intravaginal branching; awns 1.5–2.5 mm and much less in length than lemma, rather than 6–13 mm and much greater in length than lemma,; anthers 0.6–0.8 mm rather than 3.75–4.25 mm long, and cleistogamous rather than chasmogamous (open) flowering habit.
Flowering
December-January
Fruiting
January-March
Life cycle
Florets are dispersed by wind, water and attachment (Thorsen et al. 2009).
Propagation technique
Unknown in cultivation in New Zealand.
Threats
This is a Macquarie Island endemic and occurs in the New Zealand Botanical Region but it is not encompassed by the New Zealand threat classification process as Macquarie is under the management of Australia.
Cats, rats, mice and rabbits introduced by sealers in the early 1800s posed a significant threat to sepcies endemic to Maquarie Island an when cats were initially erdaticated nearly a century later there was an explosion rabbits numbers. Further efforts were made to remove rodent perst by the Australian Government and in 2014 Macqurie was declared pest free.
Etymology
festuca: From the Latin festuca ‘stem’ or ‘blade of grass’
Where To Buy
Not commercially available
Attribution
Description modified from Edgar and Connor (2000)
References and further reading
Edgar E, Connor HE. 2000. Flora of New Zealand. Vol. V. Grasses. Christchurch, Manaaki Whenua Press. 650 p.
Thorsen MJ, Dickinson KJM, Seddon PJ. 2009. Seed dispersal systems in the New Zealand flora. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 11: 285–309.