''Garnotia cheesemanii'', the Rarotongan garnotia grass, is a species of grass in the family

Poaceae 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 cultivate ...

that is endemic to the island of

Rarotonga Rarotonga is the largest and most populous of the Cook Islands. The island is volcanic, with an area of , and is home to almost 75% of the country's population, with 10,898 of a total population of 15,040. The Parliament of the Cook Islands, Coo ...

in the

Cook Islands The Cook Islands is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of 15 islands whose total land area is approximately . The Cook Islands' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers of ocean. Avarua is its ...

in the South Pacific. The species is classified as

Critically Endangered An IUCN Red List critically endangered (CR or sometimes CE) species is one that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. As of December 2023, of t ...

because of its extremely restricted range and population fragmentation.

Range and habitat

It is endemic to the island of

in the Cook Islands. It grows on rocky well-drained substrates with sparse vegetative cover on a north-east facing basaltic cliff under the trees rata ('' Metrosideros collina'') and pua ('' Fagraea berteroana''), between 350 and 450 meters elevation.

Taxonomy

It was described by

Eduard Hackel Eduard Hackel (17 March 1850 in Haida, Bohemia – 2 February 1926 in Attersee, Upper Austria) was an Austrian botanist. His father was a veterinarian in Haida (now Nový Bor) in Bohemia. He was married and had one son. Hackel studied at the P ...

in: ''Trans. Linn. Soc. London, Bot''. 6: 303. in 1903.

References

Panicoideae Taxa named by Eduard Hackel Endemic flora of the Cook Islands Rarotonga {{Panicoideae-stub