The New Zealand Plant Conservation Network

And whilst I'm on the subject of identifying grasses on the basis of possibly inadequate images, I wondered whether someone might be able to tell me from memory what this grass on the bare, erodable cliffs with Plantago picta. On the basis of habit and habitat, it looked like it might be a species of Trisetum. The spot has been botanised on several occasions, so someone might know what they are.

Another photo of the East Coast cliff grass. East-facing, looking out towards the sea south of the island.

And another image

Hi Philip. Difficult to say for certain. Looks most like Poa anceps, which is common on coastal cliffs in that area, or could be Chionochloa flavicans var. flavicans, but this species is much more localised in the East Cape area and usually on damper rock (not papa) bluffs

Hi Philip - as I said before - and so will be more explicit - taking images for grass determinations means you need to have a scale, you need to show the culm, leaf sheath, ligule, and distinctive features of the leaves and ideally the inflorescence + spikelets etc. In that area there is Chionochloa flavicans f. flavicans (not var.), Trisetum arduanum and a race of Poa anceps one of your images suggests On the basis of the back ground) Chionochloa flavicans f. flavicans more than anything else. BUT I am not happy to blandly state that is what you saw.

Thanks guys. I picked up on your advice before, Peter, which is very good for future occasions. This was more of a speculative one, as it is a very specific spot that several people have visited (and hence the shot in the dark). I didn't expect that these photos were adequate on their own.