''Ficinia spiralis'' (pīngao, pīkao, or golden sand sedge) is a coastal

sedge The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus ''Carex'' wit ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

(including the

Chatham Islands The Chatham Islands ( ) (Moriori: ''Rēkohu'', 'Misty Sun'; mi, Wharekauri) are an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean about east of New Zealand's South Island. They are administered as part of New Zealand. The archipelago consists of about te ...

). Originally widespread, it has suffered severely from competition with introduced

marram grass ''Ammophila'' (synonymous with ''Psamma'' P. Beauv.) is a genus of flowering plants consisting of two or three very similar species of grasses. The common names for these grasses include marram grass, bent grass, and beachgrass. These grasses ar ...

and animal grazing and now has only a patchy distribution.

Description

Pīngao is a stout, grass-like plant, 30–90 cm tall, from the sedge family, found on active sand dunes. It is found only in New Zealand and is easily distinguished from other dune species such as spinifex or

. Seen from a distance, pīngao patches have a distinctive orange hue. Most plants produce long, prostrate, tough rope-like

stolon In biology, stolons (from Latin '' stolō'', genitive ''stolōnis'' – "branch"), also known as runners, are horizontal connections between organisms. They may be part of the organism, or of its skeleton; typically, animal stolons are external s ...

s that creep along the sand surface until buried by shifting sand, leaving just the upper portion of leaves exposed. Some southern South Island populations produce dense tussock-like plants without extensive stolons. Numerous tough, roughly textured leaves are borne in dense tufts on well-spaced, short, upright stems (tillers), along the length of stolons. The narrow leaves are 2–5 mm wide, with colour ranging from bright green when young through golden yellow to a deep orange on mature plants. Small, dark brown flowers appear in spring and are arranged spirally in tight clusters around the upper 10–30 cm of the upright stem (culm), interspersed with leaf-like bracts. The seeds are shiny, dark brown, egg-shaped, 3–5 mm long, and ripen and fall in early summer. Pīngao can also reproduce

vegetatively Vegetative reproduction (also known as vegetative propagation, vegetative multiplication or cloning) is any form of asexual reproduction occurring in plants in which a new plant grows from a fragment or cutting of the parent plant or spec ...

with its stolons.

Taxonomy

Pīngao was first scientifically described by Achille Richard in 1832, and was given the name ''Isolepis spiralis''. In 1853

Joseph Dalton Hooker Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (30 June 1817 – 10 December 1911) was a British botanist and explorer in the 19th century. He was a founder of geographical botany and Charles Darwin's closest friend. For twenty years he served as director of t ...

placed Pīngao in the genus ''Desmoschoenus''. In 2010 A. M. Muasyaa and P. J. de Lange merged the genus ''Desmoschoenus'' into ''

Ficinia ''Ficinia'' is a genus of tufted or rhizomatous sedges in the family Cyperaceae. There are around 70 recognised species in Africa, four species ('' Ficinia ambigua'', '' Ficinia anomala'', ''Ficinia nodosa,'' and '' Ficinia spiralis'') that occu ...

'' after their research showed that the two were indistinguishable.

In culture

One

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

name for pīngao (or pikao, in

Ngai Tahu Ngai (also called Múrungu or Enkai) is the monolithic Supreme Being, Supreme God in the spirituality of the Kikuyu people, Kikuyu (or Gikuyu) and the closely related Embu people, Embu, Meru people, Meru and Kamba people, Kamba groups of Kenya, a ...

dialect) is ''ngā tukemata o Tāne'', or "Tāne's eyebrows". Pingao, Waitutu Beach, Fiordland

Leaves from pīngao, which turn bright yellow as they dry, are used by

in traditional weaving, especially the construction of hats (pōtae), bags (kete), and mats (whāriki). It is also used to create decorative

tukutuku Tukutuku panelling is a distinctive art form of the Māori people of New Zealand, a traditional latticework used to decorate meeting houses (wharenui). Other names are tuitui and arapaki. Tukutuku flank the posts around the edge of the wharenui ...

panels in a

wharenui A wharenui (; literally "large house") is a communal house of the Māori people of New Zealand, generally situated as the focal point of a ''marae''. Wharenui are usually called meeting houses in New Zealand English, or simply called ''whare'' ( ...

. The length, width, and strength of the leaves for weaving vary among pīngao populations growing in different areas. Leaves were also used by

for thatching.

Conservation

Pīngao is an important sand-binding plant, but is out-competed by introduced sand binding species such as marram and ''

Pinus radiata ''Pinus radiata'' ( syn. ''Pinus insignis''), the Monterey pine, insignis pine or radiata pine, is a species of pine native to the Central Coast of California and Mexico ( Guadalupe Island and Cedros island). It is an evergreen conifer in the ...

'', and introduced weeds such as yellow tree lupins. Marram and pines create more stable dunes, so during colonisation large areas of pīngao were burnt. It is now restricted to scattered patches around coastal New Zealand, and is actively planted by community groups and the

Department of Conservation An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment ...

when restoring native ecosystems.

References

External links

* Pīngao discussed on RNZ ''Critter of the Week''
3 June 2016

Objects made from pingao in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
{{Taxonbar, from=Q7265030 Cyperaceae Endemic flora of New Zealand Stoloniferous plants Taxa named by Achille Richard