Flora of New Zealand Series

U. sinclairii Boott in Hook. f. var. elegans Kük. in Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. 1906, 799.

U. macrolepis Decne var. elegans (Kük.) Kük. in Pflanzenr. 38, 1909, 60.

Type locality: Black's, Manuherikia Valley, Otago. Type: WELT, 1761, Petrie; isotype at AK.

Shortly rhizomatous, rhizome 1–1.5 mm. diam. Culms 4–15–(30) cm. × 0.5–1 mm., erect, us. glab. but occ. faintly scabrid just below infl.; basal bracts dull grey-brown. Lvs 4–9 per culm, < or ± = culms, 1–1.5–(2) mm. wide, soft. Spikes (1.5)–2–3 cm. × 2–3–(4) mm., cylindrical, ebracteate, female fls c. 10, rather close-set but lower ones often more lax. Glumes slightly < utricles, persistent, obtuse, coriac., straw-coloured with brown markings, to dark brown, midrib green. Utricles 4–5 × 1–1.5 mm., plano-convex, obovate-oblong, grey-brown with darker brown nerves, hispid on margins and both surfaces of upper half, beak slightly tapering, c. 1 mm. long, stipe scarcely narrowed, c. 0.5 mm. long.

DIST.: S.

Between lat. 43º and 45º30' in short-tussock grassland and on dry rocky ground from 500–1,000 m. altitude, local in Canterbury and in Fiordland, more common in Otago.

U. elegans is very similar to U. sinclairii from which it principally differs in the longer, narrower spikes, narrower lvs and narrower, more distinctly nerved, utricles. The glumes of U. elegans are often dark brown or brown-tinged while those of U. sinclairii are us. uniformly straw-coloured. Both U. elegans and U. sinclairii are close to U. macrolepis Decne of South America and U. smithii Philcox of South Georgia. The few specimens of U. macrolepis examined were similar to U. elegans in size but the spikes were c. 1.5 cm. long and the utricles were 3.5–4 × 1–1.5 mm. and scarcely beaked. The midrib in the lowermost glume of the spike was produced to a scabrid awn.