General Information

COMMON NAMES: Native Burr-Grass TRADITIONAL NAMES: Pārango Māori [?] (MT) GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION: NATIVE Micronesia - Melanesia - e.Polynesia COOK ISLANDS STATUS: Native; Land, lowlands - mountains (+) SIGNIFICANCE LIST: ; Nationally endangered (seriously)Medicinal?

Cook Islands Distribution

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Southern Group: Present    Makatea: X
RR	MG	AT	MK	MT	AK	PL	TK	MN
+	-	-	-	X?	-	-	-	-

Northern Group: -
TN	MH	RK	PK	NS	SW
-	-	-	-	-	-

Cenchrus calyculatus Cav.
SYNONYMS: Cenchrus anomoplexis

TAXONOMY: PLANTAE; ANTHOPHYTA (=Angiospermae); LILIOPSIDA (=Monocotyledones); COMMELINIDAE; Cyperales; POACEAE

SIGNIFICANCE NOTES -
BIODIVERSITY: Nationally endangered (seriously). Comment: Known only from the cliff below Maungatea Bluff. This species might be the Pārango Māori of Miti‘āro, a name collected by T&J.Rongo in 2004 - the grass was said to have disappeared by informants who had used if for medicine.
POSITIVE SIGNIFICANCE: Medicinal?. Comments: Possibly a former medicinal plant on Miti‘āro.

Vouchers:
Miti‘āro: 2004, informants recalled a grass called Pārango Māori, which was like a Pārango but without sharp spines on the burrs, formerly used for medicine but now lost from the island, T&J.Rongo for NBSAP Add-on consultancy, G.McCormack suggested that this might be Cenchrus calyculatus a formerly widespread native grass not very rare, but still existing on a the Maungatea Cliff and in a Tupapa fernland [needs confirmation with the Miti‘āro informant].

References:
p.1/355 A.C.Smith - Flora Vitiensis Nova
p.17 ? Wilder - Flora of Rarotonga
p.387f Whistler - Ethnobotany of the Cook Islands

Data Update History (information):
zTX, zB02, zM02, zupM04b

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