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Manual of the New Zealand Flora.
4. Isachne, R. Br
4. Isachne, R. Br.
Perennial or rarely annual grasses. Culms tufted, or decumbent or creeping at the base. Spikelets small or minute, loosely panicled, not at all or very obscurely articulate on the pedicels, 2-flowered; both flowers hermaphrodite, or the lower flower sometimes male, and the upper flower sometimes female. Empty glumes 2, subequal, persistent or separately deciduous, convex, membranous, awnless. Flowering glumes 2, rather smaller than page 847the empty glumes, equal or the lower larger, convex or almost hemispherical, subcoriaceous. Palea as long as the flowering glume. Lodicules very minute. Stamens 3, rarely more. Grain free within the hardened glume and palea, generally falling away with them.
Species about 20, widely spread in most tropical or subtropical regions. The single New Zealand species ranges through Australia to India and China.
| 1. | I. australis, R. Br. Prodr. 196.—Culms slender, creeping or decumbent at the base, ascending above, glabrous or nearly so, 6–18 in. high. Leaves short, 2–6 in. long, ⅙–¼ in. broad, lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, acute, flat, minutely rough on both surfaces, margins scaberulous; sheaths smooth, ciliate at the mouth and on the margins above. Panicle erect, usually open, ovoid or pyramidal in outline, 2–4 in. long; branches numerous, sparingly divided, very slender, flexuose, minutely scaberulous. Spikelets all pedicelled, small, globose or nearly so, obtuse, about 1/12 in. long Empty glumes membranous, glabrous, many-nerved. Flowering glumes firm and coriaceous, unequal in size; the lower much the larger, smooth, shining; upper sometimes minutely pubescent. Lower flower usually male; upper female. Palea coriaceous like the flowering glume.—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 291; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 324; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 625; Buch. N.Z. Grasses, t. 12.
North Island: Abundant in swamps from the North Cape to the East Cape, Lake Taupo, and Taranaki. Sea-level to 1800 ft. Greedily eaten by cattle. In summer and autumn it often affords a large amount of nutritious pasturage in swampy districts. |