''Austroderia'' is a genus of five species of tall

grasses Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in ...

native to

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

, commonly known as toetoe (from

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 Co ...

).Toetoe
hosted on the NZ Landcare research Maanaki Whenua website. Page accessed 20 November 2010. The species are ''A. toetoe'', ''A. fulvida'', ''A. splendens'', ''A. richardii'' and ''A. turbaria''. They were recently reclassified in 2011 from the genus ''

Cortaderia ''Cortaderia'' is a genus of plants in the Poaceae or grass family of plants. All current species included in the ''Cortaderia'' genus are native to South and Central America, ranging from the Patagonia region of southern Chile and Argentina, ...

'', although their distinctiveness had been recognized as early as 1853.Steudel, Ernst Gottlieb von 1853. Synopsis Plantarum Glumacearum 1: 34–35
/ref> Two closely related

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

n species are ''

Cortaderia jubata ''Cortaderia jubata'' is a species of grass known by several common names, including purple pampas grass and Andean pampas grass. It is similar to its more widespread relative, the pampas grass '' C. selloana'', but it can get quite a bit taller ...

'' and '' C. selloana'' (Pampas Grass), which have been introduced to New Zealand and are often mistaken for toetoe. These

introduced species An introduced species, alien species, exotic species, adventive species, immigrant species, foreign species, non-indigenous species, or non-native species is a species living outside its native distributional range, but which has arrived ther ...

tend to take over from the native toetoe and are regarded as invasive weeds. Among the differences between Pampas, Toetoe has a drooping flower head, a cream coloured plume, and the leaves do not break when tugged firmly. Toetoe also has a white, waxy bloom on the leaf-sheath and conspicuous veins between the midrib and leaf margin.

Common uses

The

used the toetoe leaves to make baskets, kites, mats, wall linings and roof thatching. It was also used to make containers to cook food in hot springs, due to the fibres being water-resistant. The flower stalks were also useful - as frames for kites, and in

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 wharenu ...

panelling. The seed heads themselves were used on fresh wounds to stop bleeding. Other medicinal uses included treatment of

diarrhoea Diarrhea (American English), also spelled diarrhoea or diarrhœa (British English), is the condition of having at least three loose, liquid, or watery bowel movements in a day. It often lasts for a few days and can result in dehydration d ...

, kidney complaints, and burns. Toetoe is New Zealand's largest native grass, growing in clumps up to 3m in height.

Other names

Māori names for toetoe in its varieties include: , , . The flower stem is named . Toetoe is also known as 'cutty grass', especially among children, because the serrated leaf edges can cut the skin. Cutty grass is also used in

to refer to '' Gahnia setifola'' (mapere), '' Cyperus ustulatus'' (upoko tangata) and ''Carex geminata''.

Species

The following five species comprise the genus:Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
/ref> * '' Austroderia fulvida'' (North + South Islands) * '' Austroderia richardii'' (North + South Islands; naturalised in Tasmania) * '' Austroderia splendens'' (coastal parts of North Island) * '' Austroderia toetoe'' (North Island) * '' Austroderia turbaria'' (Chatham Islands)

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3409558 Danthonioideae Bunchgrasses of Australasia Endemic flora of New Zealand Grasses of New Zealand Poaceae genera