Carex devia Cheeseman
Original localities: "Mountain districts in Nelson, not uncommon above 2,500 feet altitude." Type: AK, 2662, Red Hills, Wairau Valley, Nelson, 3,000 ft. T.F. Cheeseman; isotype at K.
Tuffs often rather loose, reddish green. Culms 7–30–(75) cm. × c. 1 mm., us. much > lvs, subtrigonous, glab. or scarcely scabrid; basal sheaths brown to dark brown, almost black, occ. red-tinged. Lvs 7–30 cm. × 1.5–2.5 mm., us. crowded at base of culm, channelled, occ. involute, stiff, coriac., margins moderately scabrid. Spikes 2–4, ± distant, sessile or the lowest occ. very shortly pedunculate; terminal 1–(2) spikes male, 1.5–3 mm. diam., us. clavate, rarely with a few female fls at the base; female spikes 1–2.5–(3) cm. × c. 5 mm. Glumes (excluding awn) slightly < utricles, ovate, acute, occ. emarginate, coriac., entirely red-purple, or red-brown with a green midrib produced to a hispid awn of variable length. Utricles c. 3 × 1.5 mm., unequally biconvex to plano-convex, ellipsoid, light brown at base, darker brown above, distinctly nerved, abruptly narrowed to a beak < 0.5 mm. long, deeply cleft with divergent teeth, orifice of beak scabrid, utricle otherwise entirely glab.; stipe c. 0.5 mm. long. Stigmas 2. Nut slightly < 2 mm. long, biconvex, oblong.
DIST.: S. Nelson.
On serpentine scree, boggy openings in forest and on stream margins, 300–1,170 m. altitude.
C. devia resembles C. flagellifera but its lvs are more coriac., the spikes are shorter, broader, and more close-set, the terminal male spike is often clavate and the utricles are distinctly nerved on both faces.
