Polypogon magellanicus

Polypogon magellanicus is a tufted perennial grass, varying in height from 50 to 450 mm and forming short grassland communities. The culms have purple nodes. The leaves are wiry. The panicles are 20–120 mm long, with many shiny, greenish-purple, distinctly awned spikelets. ==Taxonomy==

Polypogon magellanicus was scientifically described by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck in 1791 and named Agrostis magellanica. The botanist Victor Lionel Finot reclassified it to the genus Polypogon with the name Polypogon magellanicus. It has no accepted subspecies or varieties, but has synonyms. In New Zealand, the name Agrostis magellanica is still preferred. ==Distribution and habitat==

The grass is found in the south-west of New Zealand’s South Island and on the Antipodes, Auckland, and Campbell Islands. It is also native to Macquarie Island and the Falkland, Kerguelen, Crozet and Prince Edward Islands, as well as southern South America in Tierra del Fuego. In New Zealand it occupies subalpine and alpine habitats on stony or rocky ground. In the subantarctic islands it grows at lower altitudes in peat and among mosses and cushion plants, or as scattered small plants in fellfield. ==References==