Carex inversa R.Br.
C. smaragdina Col. in T.N.Z.I. 27, 1895, 398.
Type: Australian.
Rhizomatous; very variable in size, flaccid, bright green, forming a matted sward. Rhizome long-creeping, to 2 mm. diam., covered by closely appressed brown scales or their fibrous remains; shoots ± distant, singly from the rhizome, c. 1 mm. diam. at base including basal sheaths. Culms (2)–8–30–(45) cm. × c. 0.5–1 mm., weak, smooth, green, obtusely trigonous; basal sheaths pale brown almost cream. Lvs < mature culms, 0.5–1.5 mm. wide, channelled to flat, soft, grasslike, margins us. smooth or very minutely scabrid towards tip. Infl. a pale green or bright green ovate head, c. 1 cm. long, of 2–5 closely packed ± sessile spikes, or occ. 1–2 spikes distant from the rest; bracts subtending infl. and lower spikes green and lfy, much longer than infl. Spikes androgynous, 4–8 mm. long, male fls 1–3 at base of spikes, occ. 0. Glumes < utricles, ovate, acuminate, white or pale brown, with a green, faintly scabrid keel. Utricles 3–3.5 × c. 1.5 mm., plano-convex, ovoid, elliptical, distinctly nerved on convex face, light greenish brown; narrowed to a scabrid beak c. 1 mm. long; stipe slightly > 0.5 mm. long, pale cream. Stigmas 2. Nut c. 1.5 mm. long, plano-convex, broadly oblong, shortly stipitate, light to dark brown.
DIST.: N., S.
Also recorded from Norfolk and Lord Howe Is.
Scattered throughout in damp places to 1,170 m. altitude.
This grasslike sp. with pale green infls is often found as a weed of lawns and footpaths.
C. inversa appears to be more variable in Australia than in N.Z. Boott placed within his var. minor (Ill. Car. 4, 1867, 151, t. 487, 488) small plants with smooth utricles from Tasmania, Port Jackson [New South Wales] and N.Z.
C. inversa R.Br. var. leichardtii Boeck. in Linnaea 39, 1875, 70, from Paramatta, New South Wales, was cited as occurring in N.Z. by Kükenthal in Pflanzenr. 38, 1909, 189. Var. leichardtii was described as having smooth culms and abruptly beaked utricles. A few N.Z. specimens exhibit these characters but no pattern has been detected in their distribution.
C. inversa forma parvula Kük. in Pflanzenr. 38, 1909, 189, from Australia and N.Z., was described as "Culmus 4–6 cm altus debilis. Spiculae parvulae pauciflorae." Kükenthal placed here WELT 24509, (also a duplicate at CANTY), Whangaroa, D. Petrie, May 1897, no. 1642 in Herb. Cockayne. Plants growing as weeds in unfavourable situations are often smaller than these specimens.
C. smaragdina Col. was based on specimens from "interior deep damp forests at Dannevirke, County of Waipawa; March, 1894: W.C." Lectotype: WELT, 21767, Dannevirke, Colenso; isotype at AK.
C. inversa var. costata Kük. in Pflanzenr. 38, 1909, 189, from Lake Wanaka, Petrie, was described as having intensely green utricles with strongly marked brown nerves. No specimens have been found.
