Order GRAMINEiE 
Genus Danthonia. 
Sub-Order Avenaceje. 
9.—DANTHONIA BUCHANANI. 
BUCHANAN’S OAT GRASS. 
{Plate XXXV) 
Danthonia Buchanani, Hook, fil., Handb. N.Z. Flora, I., 333. 
A tall, tufted, glabrous, perennial grass, found 1000—2000 feet altitude. Flowers January. Culms 
2—3-feet high. Leaves 6—18-inches long, ^-inch broad, flat or involute, sheathing leaves short; 
ligule very short, truncate, membraneous, lacerate on top. Panicle contracted, 6—8-inches long, branches 
few, in distant pairs, 1—2-inches long. Spikelets few, alternate on the branches and clustered near the 
ends. Empty glumes membraneous, ovate-oblong, obtuse, serrate on top, 3-nerved, pale-yellow with 
white margins. Staminiferous flowering glumes dark-orange, linear-oblong, pilose, and fringed on the 
margins with long hairs, deeply 2-fid, 5-nerved, lobes obtuse, central awn as long as the glume, twisted 
at bottom and bent near the middle at an obtuse angle. Palea of staminiferous florets bifid at top, 
2-nerved. Fertile flowering glume glabrous, thick and horny, shining, dark-orange, ovate, obtuse, entire 
and ciliate at top, 5-nerved. Palea of fertile floret linear-obtuse, entire, 1 -nerved. Scales oblong-acute, 
crowned with short cilia. Ovary elongate, narrow. Distribution of Species : SOUTH ISLAND, 
NEW ZEALAND. 
Note.—T he 5-nerved flowering glume of this species is a departure from the constant 9-nerved in 
Danthonia. 
Little is known of this grass since it was first discovered near the Wanaka Lake, Otago, by the 
Geological Survey in 1864. It is a tall oat-like grass, the dark-orange spikelets of which attract the 
attention very readily, and suggest the idea of a cultivated plant. The horses used by the survey party, 
which remained at the main camp for some weeks, fed greedily upon this grass with great relish, and 
were noticed to prefer it to other grasses. The general appearance of this species is more that of a 
fodder plant than one peculiarly adapted for pasture, and it would no doubt repay the expense of an 
experimental trial if any of the residents near the locality were to collect the seed. Distribution in 
New Zealand: HECTOR’S CAMP, MATUK 1 TUKI VALLEY, NEAR WANAKA LAKE. 
Reference to Plate XXXV.: Fig. 1. Plant. 2. Spikelet. 3. Staminiferous floret (by mistake, 
stigmas have been drawn in this floret instead of anthers). 4, 4. Nervation of empty glumes. 
5. Nervation of flowering glume of staminiferous floret. 6. Palea of staminiferous floret. 7. Flowering 
glume of fertile floret. 8. Palea of fertile floret. 9. Scale. 10. Ovary, styles, and stigmas. 
11, if. Grain, front and side views. 
