Order (4RAMINE/E. 
Genus Poa. 
Sub-Order Festucaceal 
11.—POA ALBIDA, n.s. 
WHITE-FLOWEBED POA. 
(Plate L . C .) 
Poa anceps, Var. E. alpina, Handb. N.Z. FI., I , 339. 
A small tufted, deeply rooting, greenish-white grass, found at 4000—6000 feet altitude. Flowers 
December—February. Perennial. Culms 4—6 inches high, smooth, stout. Leaves shorter than the 
culms, 1—2 inches long, involute, rigid, decussate, tips acicular, grooved and scabrid on the ridges; 
sheaths deeply grooved and scabrid; ligule short, truncate. Panicle much contracted, nearly white 
when dry, 1—2 inches long, of several short branches, densely flowered. Spikelets very small, short, 
broad, scabridous, 2—3-flowered. Empty glumes 3-nerved. Flowering glume 5-nerved. Palea bifid, 
2-nerved. Scales oblique, acuminate. Anthers short. Grain sharply pointed, and bent inward at 
the top. Distribution of Species : NEW ZEALAND. 
This peculiar little alpine grass is described in the Handbook of the Flora of New Zealand as a 
variety of Poa anceps , with a note, added by the author, that “ it may perhaps prove a different species.’’ 
An examination of its details confirms this opinion, and it has therefore been described as a distinct 
species; the long flocculent silky hair at the base of the flowering glume and long anthers, so 
characteristic of Poa anceps varieties, being both absent. The rigid, harsh herbage of this litttle grass 
does not recommend it to favourable notice, as it will probably prove unpalatable to stock. 
Distribution in New Zealand : SOUTH ISLAND: SNOW HOLES ON MOUNT 
DARWIN, ascending to 6000 feet on MOUNT DOBSON—Haast; NELSON MOUNTAINS 
(5000 feet)—H. H. Travers. 
Reference to Plate L. C: Fig. 1. Plant. 2. Spikelet. 3. Floret. 4. Nervation of empty 
glumes. 5. Nervation of flowering glume. 6. Nervation of Palea. 7. Scale. 8, 8k Grain, front 
and side views. 
