Biology:Rytidosperma unarede

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Short description: Species of grass

Rytidosperma unarede
Scientific classification edit
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Clade: Commelinids
Order: Poales
Family: Poaceae
Genus: Rytidosperma
Species:
R. unarede
Binomial name
Rytidosperma unarede
(Raoul) Connor & Edgar (1979)[1]
Synonyms
  • Danthonia unarede Raoul (1844)[1]

Rytidosperma unarede is a vascular plant in the family Poaceae (the grass family). The specific epithet is the Māori name unarede recorded by Raoul when the plant was first described in 1844.[1]

Description

It is an slender perennial tufted grass, growing to about 45 cm in height. The leaf blade grows up to 40 in length and 3.5 mm wide, or is tightly inrolled. The panicle is erect, slightly branched, 5–10 cm long and 1–2.3 cm wide.[1]

Distribution and habitat

The grass is native to New Zealand. It is also a rare inhabitant of Australia's subtropical Lord Howe Island in the Tasman Sea.[1] On Lord Howe it is recorded as growing in goat dung-affected soil on dry basalt.[2]

Ecology

The rust fungus Uromyces danthoniae, a species found that grows parasitically on the leaves of several Rytidosperma species in New Zealand and Australia, infects Rytidosperma unarede. It forms dense clusters of orange-brown aecidia on both surfaces of the leaf.[3]

It is also a host of Sphaerodothella danthoniae, a sac fungus that produces black, shiny leaf spots that occasionally coalesce into straight to irregular lines in the leaf surface of several species of Rytidosperma.[4][5]

References

Wikidata ☰ Q15520851 entry