Species

Triglochin palustris

Etymology

Triglochin: three-pointed
palustris: From the Latin palus 'swamp', meaning growing in swamps

Common Name(s)

marsh arrow grass

Current Conservation Status

2012 - Threatened - Nationally Critical

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 - Threatened - Nationally Critical
2004 - Threatened - Nationally Endangered

Qualifiers

2012 - RR, SO, Sp
2009 - SO, DP

Authority

Triglochin palustris L.

Family

Juncaginaceae

Flora Category

Vascular - Native

NVS Species Code

TRIPAL

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.

Structural Class

Monocotyledonous Herbs

Synonyms

Triglochin palustre L.

Distribution

Indigenous. In New Zealand known only from the eastern side of the South Island, where it has been reported from South Canterbury, Northern and Central Otago. Common in the Northern Hemisphere and South America.

Habitat

Montane wetlands. Found growing along the sides of slow flowing streams, on tarn and lake margins and in sphagnum bogs.

Features

Summer green, erect, slender, bulbous herb forming small colonies. Leaves dark green to reddish-green, 50-500(-800) x 0.5-1 mm diam., fleshy, semicircular or slightly channelled in cross-section. Ligules undivided, subacute. Inflorescence arising on a stout peduncule 25-260(-400) mm long; racemose, with raceme more or less equal to peduncle length. Flowers pedicellate, pedicels up to 6 mm long, closely appressed to peduncle axis. Flowers c. 3 mm long, dark green to wine-red. Fruit 80-100 x 1 mm, narrow-linear, with the 3 fertile follicles unkeeled, dorsifixed, partially separating from the base, resulting in an arrow shaped structure.

Similar Taxa

A distinctive species, immediately recognised by the arrow-head fruits borne on a long slender raceme are imemdiately diagnostic. Occasionally T. striata may grow inland in similar habitats. It is a much smaller plant, lacking a bulbous base, with rounded leaf ligules and whose fruits are subglobose rather than arrow-shaped.

Flowering

December to February

Flower Colours

Green,Red / Pink

Fruiting

December to March

Propagation Technique

Can be grown in damp soil or partially submerged pots from divisions or whole plants. Fresh seed should germinate easily.

Threats

Herbarium records indicate that this species has always been localised. However, it is also easily overlooked. Nevertheless some Canterbury sites have vanished and in some of the Otago sites the species is very vulnerable to weed invasion of its wetland habit. Very few populations occur on protected land, and many are accessible to livestock which greedily eat plants.

Chromosome No.

2n = 24

Endemic Taxon

No

Endemic Genus

No

Endemic Family

No

Where To Buy

Not commericially available.

Attribution

Description adapted from Moore and Edgar (1970).

References and further reading

Moore, L.B.; Edgar, E. 1970: Flora of New Zealand. Vol. I. Government Printer, Wellington.

This page last updated on 4 Sep 2013