Flora of New Zealand Series

S. maritimus L. var. fluviatilis Torr. in Ann. Lyceum nat. Hist. N.Y. 3, 1836, 324.

S. perviridis Cook in T.R.S.N.Z.  76,  1947,  570.

Type: N. American. Also found in east Asia and in Australia.

Summer-green perennial. Rhizome 7–9 mm. diam., woody, long-creeping, very dark brown, forming globose, ligneous tubers. Culms 150–200 cm. × 6–10 mm., triquetrous, striated, smooth except just below infl. where scabrid on angles; basal sheaths loose, membr., septate, brown, up to 15 cm. long. Lvs ∞, <, = or > culms, c. 50 cm. × 7–11 mm., double-folded but flattened, grass-like, tapering, coriac., margins and midrib scabrid towards the tip; sheaths long, closed, coriac. Infl. a terminal, compound, irregular umbel; rays 6–9, unequal, 2–10 cm. long, bearing clusters of 1–6 spikelets, a sessile glomerule of spikelets at the base of the rays; involucral subtending bracts similar to lvs, > infl., unequal, 15–25 cm. × 3–6 mm., as many as, or 1–2 fewer than rays. Spikelets 1–2.5 cm. long, ovoid, or cylindric, dull red-brown. Glumes membr., pubescent, tips cleft or lacerate, with a scabrid, recurved awn. Hypog. bristles 6, ± = nut, persistent, red-brown, retrorsely scabrid. Stamens 3. Style-branches 3. Nut 3–4 × 1.5–2 mm., equilaterally 3-angled with acute dorsal angle, obovate, apiculate, pale cream to occ. black and shining.

DIST.: N. From North Auckland southwards to lat. 38º, scattered further south on the east coast north of Napier, and on the west from Wanganui to Foxton.

Fresh water, and brackish swamps and river margins, never very far from the coast except at Rotorua and Palmerston North.

S. perviridis Cook : Type locality, "Vicinity Port Waikato." Isotype: AK, 59189.