Marquesas Islands.In the Marquesas,
endemic to
Nuku Hiva, Ua Huka, Ua Pou, Hiva Oa, Tahuata, Fatu Hiva.
Habitat
Open wet forests and cloud
Elevation
700-1100 m
Habit
Perennial herb with erect to ascending rhizomes clothed with brown to dark
brown remains of basal sheaths; culms
tufted, to ca. 1 m tall, 4‒6 mm in diameter toward base, terete, usually 3‒4-nodose between base and inflorescence.
Leaves
Leaves coriaceous; blade linear, 6‒8 mm wide medially, 10 mm wide basally, equal to or exceeding the culm in length, 50‒130 cm long, margin markedly thickened, strongly involute, serrulate-scabrous along the
slender apical portion; basal leaves with sheath open to base, overlapping, 10‒15 cm long.
Flowers
Inflorescences moderately dense
compound panicles, narrowly lanceolate in outline, interrupted below, 35‒40 cm long, 4‒6 cm wide, bearing many elongated blackish brown partial panicles, the primary branches (1)2‒3 together, 2‒12 cm long, axillary from sheathing leafy bracts, half as
long as or exceeding the inflorescence, the ultimate axes scabrous; bracteoles blackish brown, spathaceous, long-aristate.
Spikelets ovoid when flowering, with a
tuft of capillary filaments projecting from the apex, 1‒3-flowered, spikelets shortly pedicellate or subsessile; glumes 3‒4, dark brown, glabrate or puberulent, the outer exceeding the others in length, 5-veined, notched sometimes apically, terminating in
a scabrous, subulate apex, the next somewhat shorter, 3-veined, acuminate, the 1 or 2 innermost flower-bearing glumes, ca. 3 mm long, 1-veined, acute or acuminate; style 3-parted, puberulous at the base, branches simple or bifurcate; stamens 3‒6,
anthers linear, 2–2.5 mm, filaments reddish brown, at first equaling style in length, elongating to ca. 15 mm long.
Fruit
Achenes obovoid, obtusely triangular, 2‒2.5 mm long, 1‒1.4 mm wide, shiny light yellowish brown to medium brown, with 3‒6 persistent capillary filaments 15 mm long attached at the base, the apex beaked with the thickened base of the style ca. 1 mm
long, surface foveolate.
Notes
Occasional to common locally in the cloud zone on windy slopes and crests, altitude 760-1200 meters. The Marquesan name is mo`u, and the stout, flexible leaves were formerly used by the Marquesans for binding prisoners of war (Brown 1931).
