The New Zealand Plant Conservation Network

Species

Puccinellia stricta

Etymology

Puccinellia: After the italian botanist Benedetto Puccinelli (1808 - 1850).
stricta: From the Latin strictus 'upright, stiff'

Common Name(s)

saltgrass

Current Conservation Status

2012 - Not Threatened

Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2012
The conservation status of all known New Zealand vascular plant taxa at the rank of species and below were reassessed in 2012 using the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS). This report includes a statistical summary and brief notes on changes since 2009 and replaces all previous NZTCS lists for vascular plants. Authors: Peter J. de Lange, Jeremy R. Rolfe, Paul D. Champion, Shannel P. Courtney, Peter B. Heenan, John W. Barkla, Ewen K. Cameron, David A. Norton and Rodney A. Hitchmough. File size: 792KB

Previous Conservation Status

2009 - Not Threatened
2004 - Not Threatened

Authority

Puccinellia stricta (Hook.f.) Blom.

Family

Poaceae

Flora Category

Vascular - Native

NVS Species Code

PUCSTR

Structural Class

Grasses

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

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

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.

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.

Chromosome No.

2n = 14

Endemic Taxon

No

Endemic Genus

No

Endemic Family

No

This page last updated on 11 Aug 2014