Anthoxanthum redolens

Anthoxanthum redolens
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Embryophytes
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Clade: Commelinids
Order: Poales
Family: Poaceae
Subfamily: Pooideae
Genus: Anthoxanthum
Species:
A. redolens
Binomial name
Anthoxanthum redolens
(Vahl) P.Royen, 1979

Anthoxanthum redolens, also known as holy grass, kāretu (Te Reo Māori), and cinnamon grass (Falkland Islands), is a species of grass native mostly to the Southern Hemisphere, as well as Ecuador.[1][2][3][4]

Description

A. redolens is a perennial, tufted grass with 8-45 cm long, 5-12 mm wide aromatic leaf-blades. The culms are 36-100 cm tall bearing compound panicle inflorescences. The spikelets are solitary on 1-7 mm pedicels.[5][6][7]

Plants in New Zealand differ from plants in South America, the Falklands, and Tierra del Fuego. In all cases, the spikelets are 3-flowered. In New Zealand, they comprise an upper hermaphrodite floret, surrounded by two male florets. However, in South American plants, this upper floret is female, with two pollen-sterile anthers.[8]

From other native New Zealand Anthoxanthum species, A. redolens differs in that the hermaphrodite floret is normally awned. The awns of the male florets are inserted near the lemma base and are normally straight.[7]

Distribution

A. redolens is indigenous to New Zealand, Australia, New Guinea, Argentina, Chile, the Falkland Islands, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador.[3][9][10]

New Zealand

In New Zealand, it is found in the North, South, Three Kings, Campbell, and Chatham Islands.[6][11][12]

Australia

In Australia, it is found in New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania.[5]

Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador

In Peru, it is found at 3,300-4,400 metres above sea level in the Andes and the Puna.[13] However, some authors regard plants from Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador as not fitting with the southern South American plants, possibly warranting recognition as separate species.[14]

Habitat

A. redolens is usually found in wet subalpine to alpine grasslands.[5]

On Steeple Jason Island, off the Falkland Islands, A. redolens is found in fens,[4] as well as grasslands comprising Cortaderia pilosa, Austroblechnum penna-marina, Rumex acetosella, Holcus lanatus, Agrostis capillaris, and Trisetum phleoides.[15]

On Mt Willhelm, Papua New Guinea, A. redolens is co-dominant in tussockland with Deschampsia klossii and Poa saruwagedica.[16]

In South America, A. redolens is described as living in both high-altitude meadows and at sea level, but always in humid places, and usually next to watercourses. Near Punta Arenos, a community dominated by A. redolens and Alopecurus antarcticus is described. This community is found on beaches made up of organic matter deposited by waves, forming an open cover of the two dominant species, in association with Poa fueguina, Agropyron magellanicum, and the daisy Senecio smithii.[8]

Ecology

In New Zealand, A. redolens sometimes grows on the 'trunks' produced by the large wetland sedge Carex secta.[17]

Parasites

A. redolens is a host to numerous species of fungi and virus. It hosts fungi such as the rusts Uredo karetu and Puccinia graminis; the leaf-spot fungus Lophodermium gramineum; and sac fungi Mycosphaerella recutita and Pyrenophora chaetomioides.[18] It also hosts a previously undiscovered Luteovirus.[19] Of these, Uredo karetu is so far known only on A. redolens.[20]

Herbivores

Prior to the evacuation of kakapō from the mainland South Island, A. redolens was recorded as one of its food plants, with kakapō eating its shoots.[21] A. redolens is also used by Magellanic penguins on Martillo Island, Argentina for lining nesting burrows, producing bare pedestals made of tufts where leaves have been removed.[22]

A. redolens is also eaten by cattle and sheep.[12]

Ethnobotany

In New Zealand, A. redolens is considered a tāonga (treasure) species by Māori, who call it karetū. Due to its pleasant smell, it was used to line sitting and sleeping places, or worn around the neck, head, and waist as a source of perfume.[23][24] It was sometimes used by tōhunga (priests or healers) in rituals to restore fertility to women who had been unsuccessful in conceiving.[25] The name karetū is thought to have been imported by Māori from Polynesia, from the unrelated but also aromatic grass Cymbopogon refractus, which is called 'aretu on the Society Islands.[26]

Threats

In New Zealand, A. redolens is generally considered not threatened nationally, but is threatened in some regions. In the South Island it used to be much more common throughout the lowlands, but has been reduced through agricultural burning and herbivory by introduced ungulate mammals, particularly cattle and sheep.[12][27]

Taxonomy

Russian-New Zealand botanist Victor Zotov considered that South American and Fuegian plants should be removed from A. redolens into another species, but considered Australian and New Zealand plants the same species. He also believed that the location listed on the type specimen (Tierra del Fuego) was incorrect, given that he said it was more like New Zealand plants than Fuegian plants.[28] María Elena de Paula agrees, stating that the type exhibits clearly hermaphroditic terminal flowers, whereas Fuegian plants have pollen-sterile terminal flowers.[8] However, Moore and Doggett compared numerous specimens from Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, and the Falklands, and considered them to have substantial overlap with New Zealand plants. They do not, however, discuss the sexual systems of their plants.[29]

Etymology

Anthoxanthum - From the Greek anthos meaning flower and xanthum meaning yellow, referring to the colour of the panicles.

redolens: from the Latin redoleo, meaning to give off odour.[2][5]

References

  1. ↑ "Karetu (Anthoxanthum redolens)". iNaturalist. Retrieved 30 November 2024.
  2. 1 2 "Anthoxanthum redolens". New Zealand Plant Conservation Network. Retrieved 1 December 2024.
  3. 1 2 "Anthoxanthum redolens (Vahl) P.Royen | Plants of the World Online | Kew Science". Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 1 December 2024.
  4. 1 2 Rexer-Huber, Kalinka; Parker, Graham C.; Reeves, Micky; Stanworth, Andrew J.; Cuthbert, Richard J. (December 2013). "Winter ecology of house mice and the prospects for their eradication from Steeple Jason (Falkland Islands)". Polar Biology. 36 (12): 1791–1797. doi:10.1007/s00300-013-1398-1. ISSN 0722-4060.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Hierochloë redolens". keys.lucidcentral.org. Retrieved 21 August 2026.
  6. 1 2 "Hierochloe redolens (Vahl) Roem. & Schult. - Flora of New Zealand Series". floraseries.landcareresearch.co.nz. Archived from the original on 15 January 2026. Retrieved 21 August 2026.
  7. 1 2 "Hierochloe R.Br. - Flora of New Zealand Series". floraseries.landcareresearch.co.nz. Archived from the original on 22 April 2026. Retrieved 22 August 2026.
  8. 1 2 3 de Paula, María Elena (1975). "Las especies del género Hierochloë (Gramineae) de Argentina y Chile". Darwiniana. 19 (2/4): 422–457. ISSN 0011-6793.
  9. ↑ Connor, H. E.; Renvoize, S. A. (2009). "Hierochloe quebrada (Poaceae), a new species from Peru and notes on floral biology in South American species". Kew Bulletin. 64 (4): 727–734. ISSN 0075-5974.
  10. ↑ Tovar, Oscar (1993). Las gramíneas (Poaceae) del Perú (in Spanish). Editorial CSIC - CSIC Press. ISBN 978-84-00-07373-2.
  11. ↑ "Anthoxanthum redolens". New Zealand Plant Conservation Network. Retrieved 21 August 2026.
  12. 1 2 3 Buchanan, John (1880). Manual of the Indigenous Grasses of New Zealand. Printed at the Office of James Hughes.
  13. ↑ Tovar, Oscar (1993). Las gramíneas (Poaceae) del Perú (in Spanish). Editorial CSIC - CSIC Press. ISBN 978-84-00-07373-2.
  14. ↑ Connor, H. E. (1 May 2012). "Flowers and floral biology of the holy grasses (Hierochloe and Anthoxanthum: Aveneae, Gramineae)". Flora - Morphology, Distribution, Functional Ecology of Plants. 207 (5): 323–333. doi:10.1016/j.flora.2012.01.010. ISSN 0367-2530.
  15. ↑ Bolton, Mark; Stanbury, Andrew; Baylis, Alastair M. M.; Cuthbert, Richard (1 November 2014). "Impact of introduced house mice (Mus musculus) on burrowing seabirds on Steeple Jason and Grand Jason Islands, Falklands, South Atlantic". Polar Biology. 37 (11): 1659–1668. doi:10.1007/s00300-014-1554-2. ISSN 1432-2056.
  16. ↑ Johns, R. J. (1982), Gressitt, J. L. (ed.), "Plant zonation", Biogeography and Ecology of New Guinea: Part One - Seven, Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, pp. 309–330, doi:10.1007/978-94-009-8632-9_13, ISBN 978-94-009-8632-9, retrieved 22 August 2026{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
  17. ↑ Zealand, Royal Society of New (1927). Transactions.
  18. ↑ "Association results".
  19. ↑ "The Wikipedia Library". wikipedialibrary.wmflabs.org. doi:10.1111/j.1744-7348.2010.00406.x. Retrieved 22 August 2026.
  20. ↑ "Uredo karetu G. Cunn. 1924 - Biota of NZ". biotanz.landcareresearch.co.nz. Archived from the original on 15 March 2026. Retrieved 23 August 2026.
  21. ↑ "The habitat, food and feeding ecology of kakapo in Fiordland: a synopsis from the unpublished MSc thesis of Richard Gray". Birds New Zealand. Retrieved 21 August 2026.
  22. ↑ Quiroga, D.R.A.; Coronato, A.; Scioscia, G.; Raya-Rey, A.; Schiavini, A.; Santos-González, J.; Lopez, C.R.; Redondo-Vega, J.M. (15 September 2020). "Erosive features caused by a Magellanic penguin (Spheniscus magellanicus) colony on Martillo Island, Beagle Channel, Argentina". Cuadernos de Investigación Geográfica. 46 (2): 477–496. doi:10.18172/cig.4337. ISSN 1697-9540.
  23. ↑ "The Wikipedia Library". wikipedialibrary.wmflabs.org. doi:10.1179/sic.2008.53.4.252. Retrieved 22 August 2026.
  24. ↑ Exhibition, 1865 (DUNEDIN), New Zealand; Colenso, William (1765). Essay on the Botany of the North Island of New Zealand. Commissioners.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  25. ↑ Best, Elsdon (1906). "THE LORE OF THE WHARE-KOHANGA. Part II". The Journal of the Polynesian Society. 15 (1(57)): 1–26. ISSN 0032-4000.
  26. ↑ "Historical notes on northern New Zealand's grasses" (PDF).
  27. ↑ Mark, Alan F.; McLennan, Bruce (1 January 2005). "The conservation status of New Zealand's indigenous grasslands". New Zealand Journal of Botany. 43 (1): 245–270. doi:10.1080/0028825X.2005.9512953. ISSN 0028-825X.
  28. ↑ Zotov, V. D. (September 1973). "Hierochloe R. Br. (Gramineae) in New Zealand". New Zealand Journal of Botany. 11 (3): 561–580. doi:10.1080/0028825X.1973.10430299. ISSN 0028-825X.
  29. ↑ Moore, D. M. and M. C. Doggett. "Hierochloe redolens (Vahl) Roem. & Schult. in Tierra del Fuego and Adjacent Regions. Bot. Soc. Argent. Bot. 16, 390–396" (PDF).
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