Deschampsia

Wavy hair-grass Deschampsia flexuosa, photographed by Botaurus.

Belongs within: Pooideae.

Deschampsia is a genus of grasses found in cold and temperate regions of the world.

Characters (from Cheeseman 1906): Perennial grasses. Leaves narrow, flat or convolute. Spikelets rather small, 2-flowered, arranged in lax or contracted panicles; rhachilla disarticulating above the 2 outer glumes, produced between the flowering glumes and above the upper flower as a naked or hairy bristle, rarely ending in an imperfect flower. Glumes 4; 2 outer slightly unequal, persistent, empty, keeled, acute, membranous, shining ; 3rd and 4th (or flowering glumes) membranous or almost hyaline, toothed at the apex ; dorsal awn slender, twisted at the base, sometimes very small or wanting. Palea narrow, 2-nerved. Lodicules 2, ovate. Stamens 3. Styles distinct; stigmas plumose. Grain oblong, enclosed within the unaltered flowering glume and palea.

<==Deschampsia C06
    |--D. aciphylla D03
    |--D. andina Phil. 1873 [=Deyeuxia andina] S06
    |--D. caespitosa [=Aira caespitosa; incl. Aira australis, Agrostis aucklandica, Aira kingii] C06
    |--D. chapmani Petrie 1891 C06 (see below for synonymy)
    |--D. flexuosa D03
    |--D. gracillima Kirk 1891 C06
    |--D. kingii D03
    |--D. klossii C78
    |--D. novae-zealandiae Petrie 1891 [incl. D. hookeri Kirk 1891] C06
    |--D. penicillata Kirk 1895 C06
    |--D. pusilla Petrie 1891 C06
    `--D. tenella Petrie 1891 C06

Deschampsia chapmani Petrie 1891 C06 [incl. Catabrosa antarctica C06, D. antarctica S03, Triodia antarctica Benth. 1881 C06]

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[C06] Cheeseman, T. F. 1906. Manual of the New Zealand Flora. John Mackay, Government Printer: Wellington.

[C78] Clunie, N. M. U. 1978. The vegetation. In: Womersley, J. S. (ed.) Handbooks of the Flora of Papua New Guinea vol. 1 pp. 1–11. Melbourne University Press: Carlton South (Australia).

[D03] Dusén, P. 1903. The vegetation of western Patagonia. In: Scott, W. B. (ed.) Reports of the Princeton University Expeditions to Patagonia, 1896–1899 vol. 8. Botany pp. 1–34. The University: Princeton (New Jersey).

[S03] Singh, J. N. 2003. Grasses and their hydro-edaphic characteristics in the grassland habitat of Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve, Tamil Nadu. Bulletin of the Botanical Survey of India 45 (1–4): 143–164.

[S06] Stuckert, T. 1906. Segunda contribución al conocimiento de las gramináceas Argentinas. Anales del Museo Nacional de Buenos Aires, serie 3, 6: 408–555.