New Zealand Journal of Botany abstracts

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Chemical composition of tall-tussocks in relation to the diet of the takahe (Notornis mantelliOwen), on the Murchison Mountains, Fiordland, New Zealand

P. A. Williams*, P. Cooper, P. Nes and K. F. O'Connor

* Miss E. L. Hellaby Indigenous Grassland Research Fellow. Present address: Botany Division, DSIR, Private Bag, Christchurch, New Zealand. Tussock Grasslands and Mountain Lands Institute, P.O. Box 56, Lincoln College, Canterbury, New Zealand. Applied Biochemistry Division, DSIR, Private Bag, Palmerston North, New Zealand. Grasslands Division, DSIR, Private Bag, Palmerston North, New Zealand.

Abstract Shoots of Chionochloa flavescens and C. pallens were dissected in a way appropriate to the manner of diet selection by takahe. The outer living leaves were removed and the lower shoot, the "butt", was divided into three components. Water-soluble sugars and the macroelements P, S, N, K, Na, Mg, and Ca, generally increase in concentration down the butt of both species. The levels of water-soluble sugars in the lower butt are similar to those in pasture grasses, but macro-elements, except Na and S, are low. The amino acid composition of C. pallens is similar to that of C. flavescens and to herbage proteins in general; sulphur amino acids were low, but much sulphur in tall-tussocks may be in a form likely to be available to the bird. These results are briefly discussed in relation to the composition of other tall-tussock species from the Murchison Mountains, and to the diet of the takahe.

Received 31 July 1975
New Zealand Journal of Botany, 1976, Vol. 14: 55-61.

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (1030K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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