Flora of New Zealand Series

C. gibbsii Petrie in T.N.Z.I.  46,  1914,  35.

Type locality: Heaphy River, Nelson. Type: WELT, 2022, J. Dall; isotype at AK.

Shortly rhizomatous; slender, dull red, ± distant tufts. Rhizome c. 1 mm. diam., closely covered by dark red striated bracts. Culms elongating when mature to c. 50 cm., c. 0.5 mm. diam., glab., flattened or subterete; basal sheaths light brown or reddish, nerves ± distinct. Lvs c. ¾ length of culms, 1–2 mm. wide, channelled, narrow-linear, margins scarcely scabrid at base with well-spaced teeth towards the tip. Spikes 3–4–(5), the uppermost ± approximate, sessile, the 1–(2) lowest often much more distant and on a long filiform peduncle; terminal spike male; remaining spikes female, 0.5–1.5 cm. × 2–5 mm., rarely with a few male fls at the base; subtending bracts lf-like, > infl. Glumes ± = or slightly < utricles, ovate, red-brown, midrib us. paler brown, but occ. darker brown, margins scarious, tips us. emarginate with a short but rather broad scabrid awn. Utricles 2–3 × 1–1.5 mm., subtrigonous, narrow-ovoid, or almost oblong, light brown below, dark red-brown above, surface smooth or faintly nerved, margins smooth, slightly narrowed towards a beak < 0.5 mm. long with a shallow bidentate scabrid orifice, somewhat contracted at the base to an extremely short stipe. Stigmas 3. Nut c. 2 mm. long, trigonous, oblong-obovoid, light brown.

DIST.: S. Nelson and Westland.

Boggy ground from 300–1,200 m. altitude.

The type specimen is immature with culms not elongated but ± = lvs.

C. gibbsii Petrie was described from "shallow open swampy flats at Cedar creek, Waimangaroa R., (near Denniston), west Nelson, about 1,760 ft." The type, WELT, 2030, D. Petrie, 11–12/2/1913, is mature with lvs and rhizomes similar to those of the type of C. dallii but with culms fully elongated. The male spikelets in the type of C. gibbsii are smaller than in Dall's specimens. There are isotypes at AK and CHR.

This red-coloured sp. closely resembles C. traversii but differs in having channelled, instead of plano-convex lvs.