Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: Ben Lomond, Lake Wakatipu c. 4,000 ft. Petrie's original specimens are represented by WELT 11895 and other sheets at WELT and AK.

Shortly rhizomatous; very variable in size, tufts dark green, reddish green or yellow-green. Culms 4–30–(50) cm. × c. 1 mm., subtrigonous, glab. or occ. faintly scabrid below infl., sunk among the lvs or sometimes elongating far beyond the lvs and drooping; basal sheaths dark brown or red-purple, nerves ± distinct. Lvs 2–4 mm. wide, ± erect or spreading, channelled, margins scarcely scabrid at base with well-spaced teeth towards tip. Spikes 4–5–(6), closely packed, at about the same level on the culm; terminal spike male, much more slender than and us. > female spikes; female spikes male at the base and occ. at the top, 1–2 cm. × c. 5 mm., shortly pedunculate. Glumes slightly < utricles, broadly ovate, us. emarginate, sometimes almost entire, occ. red-brown, us. very light brown flecked with darker brown striae, membr., midrib very broad, very pale brown, produced to a short scabrid awn. Utricles 2.5–3 × c. 2 mm., plano-convex or unequally biconvex, broadly elliptic-ovoid, pale brown flecked with red-brown striae below, or darker brown throughout, occ. almost black, turgid, nerved, margins us. glab.; beak c. 0.3 mm. long with a broad, ciliate, shortly bifid orifice; stipe c. 0.2 mm. long. Stigmas 2. Nut slightly > 1.5 mm. long, biconvex, almost orbicular.

DIST.: S.

Common in snow-tussock grassland, but also in fescue-tussock grassland from 450–1,700 m. alt.; not recorded from Fiordland and only one gathering known from Westland (Lake Brunner).

In vegetative characters C. wakatipu shows a range of variation from slender-lvd to wide-lvd rhizomatous plants, to wider-lvd, more densely tufted plants. The culms may elongate considerably at maturity or remain sunk within the lvs. Perhaps the most distinct plants are the densely tufted, wide-lvd ones in which the culms do not elongate at maturity and the fl.-spikes are hidden among the erect, rigid lvs. The 7 pieces of Petrie's original specimens at WELT show something of the range of variation in the sp. However, in all plants and specimens the infl. is very uniform, consisting of closely packed spikes with broad glumes and broad, turgid utricles.