 Festuca benthamiana Vickery |
Species
Festuca benthamiana VickeryOriginal Distribution
South Australia
Extinction Data
IUCN = Extinct Listed 1989
Description
Vegetative form. Perennial, caespitose. Leaves mostly basal (forming a tuft around the fertile culm). Culms 55-90 cm high, unbranched above, 2 noded. Mid-culm nodes narrow, glabrous, exposed or hidden by the leaf sheaths, pigmented (brown), constricted. Mid-culm internodes hollow, glabrous, terete. Young shoots intravaginal. Leaves non-auriculate. Basal leaf sheaths not keeled, terete, glabrous, the same colour as the lamina or purple (the old sheaths forming a brown tow at the base), with the veins equally striate (ribbed), with margins free, hyaline, smooth. Ligule 0.3-0.6 mm long, usually asymmetrically lobed, membranous, ciliolate, truncate, entire. Collar glabrous. Leaf blades joining the sheath abruptly, folded to involute, angled, filiform, 80-190 mm long, 0.3-0.9 mm wide (in situ); densely adaxially puberulous, channelled to shallowly grooved; abaxially scabrous (on the angles), with the veins equally striate (obscure or ribbed); with margins scabrous, apices acute to apices acuminose, hooded. Prophyll 32 mm long, the keels minutely scabrous. Vegetative form. Perennial, caespitose. Leaves mostly basal (forming a tuft around the fertile culm). Culms 55-90 cm high, unbranched above, 2 noded. Mid-culm nodes narrow, glabrous, exposed or hidden by the leaf sheaths, pigmented (brown), constricted. Mid-culm internodes hollow, glabrous, terete. Young shoots intravaginal. Leaves non-auriculate. Basal leaf sheaths not keeled, terete, glabrous, the same colour as the lamina or purple (the old sheaths forming a brown tow at the base), with the veins equally striate (ribbed), with margins free, hyaline, smooth. Ligule 0.3-0.6 mm long, usually asymmetrically lobed, membranous, ciliolate, truncate, entire. Collar glabrous. Leaf blades joining the sheath abruptly, folded to involute, angled, filiform, 80-190 mm long, 0.3-0.9 mm wide (in situ); densely adaxially puberulous, channelled to shallowly grooved; abaxially scabrous (on the angles), with the veins equally striate (obscure or ribbed); with margins scabrous, apices acute to apices acuminose, hooded. Prophyll 32 mm long, the keels minutely scabrous.Flowers Oct.-Nov. Fruits unknownNumber of Specimens at Kew
1Specimen Type (Y/N)
Y
Kew Herbcat Barcode Number
K000518042
Information Sources
Briggs, J.D. & Leigh, J.H. (1988) Rare or threatened Australian Plants. Australin National Parks and Wildlife Service.Briggs, J.D. & Leigh, J.H. (1996) Rare or threatened Australian Plants. CSIRO publishing, Melbourne.Leigh, J.H., Briggs, J. & Hartley, W. (1981) Rare or threatened Australian Plants. Australian plants National Parks and Wildlife Service. Special publication nr 7. pp 54.Walter, K.S. and Gillett, H.J. (eds) (1998). 1997 IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants. Compiled by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre IUCN – The World Conservation Union, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK., Extinct Plant Species of the World IUCN Survey and preliminary report: April 1989