Native grass rediscovered near Mangaweka is named

Botanist Peter de Lange in typical Simplicia felix habitat. Photo / Jeremy Rolfe

Whanganui ecologist Colin Ogle has had a hand in identifying a new species of native grass.

It was formally named Simplicia felix in a scientific paper this month. He was one of the paper's four authors.

Simplicia is a previously known genus. The "felix" in the scientific name means "lucky", as in "lucky find". Mr Ogle made a lucky find of the grass in the Kawhatau Valley near Mangaweka in 2005.

He said the "rather insignificant grass" wouldn't rock the pastoral farming or gardening worlds.

"But botanists are excited about it because it's in a New Zealand endemic genus. In animal terms, it's on a par with rifleman, kiwi, or saddleback."

The Simplicia genus was named in 1880, when Thomas Kirk found an unusual grass in the Wairarapa and called it Simplicia laxa. In 1943 a second species in the genus was found and named.

In 1990 more Simplicia was found growing on limestone outcrops in North Otago. Scientists concluded that was the kind of place to look for it.

So when Mr Ogle found a similar grass in lightly browsed open forest in the Kawhatau Valley in 2005 it got him thinking. He went looking for information.

In 2010 he wrote an article about the unknown species for the Wellington Botanical Society Bulletin, saying lightly grazed alluvial forests could be its habitat, rather than the niches in limestone outcrops.

That article led to more searches in the Wairarapa. The genus was rediscovered there, more than 100 years after Mr Kirk first found it.

Samples were analysed and a new species was named - Simplicia felix. Happy find indeed.