Flora of New Zealand Series

U. rubra Boott var. fallax Kük. in Pflanzenr. 38, 1909, 64.

Original localities: "Northern Island. East Coast, Tehawera, and top of Titiokura, Colenso." Type: K, Titiokura, Colenso 1692.

Whole plant dark red, rarely reddish green, laxly caespitose or shortly rhizomatous. Culms 15–35 cm. × < 1 mm., rigid, minutely scabrid on the angles under the infl. Lvs 2–3–(5) per culm, much < to slightly > culm, (0.7)–1–2–(2.5) mm. wide, rather rigid, margins slightly scabrid, tapering rather abruptly towards the tip. Spikes 2.5–6–(7) cm. × 3–5 mm., us. ebracteate, female fls c. 10, sts aborted, internodes to 10 mm. long at base of spike, 3–6 mm. long above. Glumes = or < utricles, persistent, obtuse or lowermost subacute, coriac., red with a pale margin. Utricles 5–6–(6.5) mm. long, plano-convex, concavo-convex or subtrigonous, fusiform, striated, yellowish green, later yellow-brown, narrowed above to a beak 1–1.5 mm. long, and scarcely narrowed below to a paler stipe 1–1.5 mm. long.

DIST.: N. Between lat. 38º and 40º, mainly on the central Volcanic Plateau. S. East of the main divide and in Nelson. St.

In grassland, open scrub, and bog from 450–1,400 m. altitude, descending to near sea level in Otago and Southland.

U. rubra is very uniform in North Id with lvs ½ the length of the culms and 1–1.5 mm. wide; in South Id where the sp. is more widespread the lvs are wider and often slightly > culms. Kükenthal placed the wide-lvd plants from South Id and Stewart Id within var. fallax describing it as "Culmus gracilior. Folia culmum subsuperantia, 2 mm. lata, plana, minus rigida"; the lectotype chosen by Hamlin (Bull. Dom. Mus., Wellington 19, 1959, 25) is WELT, 1477, Cookston, Tuapeka County, Nov. 1891, Petrie, no. 7825 in Herb. Cockayne. As there is a continuous range of lf-width and lf-length in South Id plants it is difficult to separate out 2 distinct units within the sp.