New Name For Sand Tussock
Late last year Soreng et al. (2009) reinstated the name Poa billardierei for the plant we have finally all got used to calling Austrofestuca littoralis.
Their paper, one of many that they have published as part of a worldwide review of the Poaceae being conducted by the Department of Botany, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, reveals what many of us have long suspected, that Austrofestuca is really a Poa. As a result of their work Austrofestuca has been reduced to a Section within Poa (Poa Sect. Austrofestuca Tzvelev). The section comprises two species Poa billardierei (Spreng.)St.-Yves (= Austrofestuca littoralis (Labill.) E.B.Alexev.) shared with Australia and the Australian endemic P. pubinervis Vickery (= Austrofestuca pubinervis (Vickery) B.K.Simmon), The other two Australian endemic species of Austrofestuca (A. eriopoda (Vickery) S.W.L.Jacobs and A. hookeriana (F.Muell. ex Hook.f.) S.W.L.Jacobs were placed in the reinstated Hookerochloa by Jacobs et al. (2008). Photo by Shannel Courtney.
References
Jacobs SWL, Gillespie LJ, Soreng RJ (2008) New combinations in Hookerochloa and Poa (Gramineae). Telopea 12: 273–278.
Soreng, R.J.; Gillespie, L.J.; Jacobs, S.W.L. 2009: Saxipoa and Sylvipoa - two new genera and a new classification for Australian Poa (Poaceae: Poinae). Australian Systematic Botany 22: 401–412.
By Peter J. de Lange
Posted: 30/09/2010