33. ASPERELLA, Humb.
Perennial grasses. Leaves narrow, flat. Spikelets 1- to several-flowered, 2–3 together or solitary in the alternate hollows of the rhachis of a simple slender spike, one face of the spikelet next the rhachis; rhachilla disarticulating above the two outer glumes and between the flowering glumes. Two outer glumes either wanting, or present in the lower spikelets as minute subulate bristles. Flowering glumes narrow-lanceolate, rigid, convolute, rounded on the back, 5-nerved above, produced into a short awn. Palea rather shorter than the glume, 9-keeled. Lodicules 2, obovate or dimidiate-obovate, hairy. Stamens 3. Styles short, distmct; stigmas plumose. Grain narrow-oblong, villous at the tip, grooved down the front, adherent to the palea.
A small genus of 7 species—2 in New Zealand, 2 in North America, and 1 each in the Himalayas, Japan, and Siberia.
| Outer glumes often wanting. Flowering glumes more or less scabrid, distinctly 5-nerved, narrowed into an awn of varying length | 1. A. gracilis. |
| Outer glumes always present. Flowering glumes smooth, faintly 3–5 nerved, truncately 3-toothed at the apex, the middle tooth produced into a short mucro | 2. A. lævis. |
1. A. gracilis, T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxvii. (1895) 352.—Perennial. Culms much branched and decumbent at the base, erect above, slender, often rather wiry, quite smooth and glabrous, leafy throughout, 1–3 ft. high. Leaves 3–9 in. long, 112–16 broad, flat, striate, minutely scabrid on the margins and upper surface; sheaths smooth, thin, striate; ligules often obscure. Spike elongated, 3–8-in. long, very slender, of 20–40 sessile spikelets placed singly in the alternate hollows of the rhachis; rhachis compressed, flat, flexuous, ciliate on the edges. Spikelets pale-green, ⅓–⅔ in. long with the awns, 1–3-flowered. Two outer glumes altogether absent or reduced to minute bristles. Flowering glumes lax, lanceolate, 5-nerved, rounded on the back below, midrib prominent above, usually more or less scabrid but sometimes nearly smooth, gradually narrowed into a scabrid awn of variable length, callus prominent. Palea almost as long as the glume, keels ciliate.—Gymnostichum gracile, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 312, t. 70; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 343; Buch. N.Z. Grasses, t. 58.
North and South Islands: Auckland—Te Pahi, Kaipara, Kirk! Thames, Adams! T.F.C.; Te Aroha, Adams! Rotorua, T.F.C.; East Cape district, Adams and Petrie. Hawke's Bay—Tarawera, Dannevirke, Colenso! Turangarere, Petrie. Wellington—Buchanan. Nelson—Lower Motueka, Graham River, T.F.C. Canteroury—Akaroa, Raoul, Armstrong; Mount Cook district, T.F.C. Otago—Not uncommon in lowland districts, Buchanan! Petrie! Sea-level to 3000 ft.
2. A. lævis, Petrie in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxvii. (1895) 406.—Culms branched from the base, slender, erect or diffuse, sparingly
