Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: Signal Hill, Dunedin, c. 600 ft. Type: WELT, 1693, Petrie; isotype at CANTY.

Caespitose, slender. Culms 4–25–(40) cm. × c. 0.5 mm., slightly scabrid below infl.; basal bracts dull brown or yellow-brown. Lvs 3–5 per culm, much < mature culms, 1–2 mm. wide, erect or slightly curved, faintly scabrid on the margins and adaxial surface towards the tip. Spikes 2.5–4 cm. ×3–4 mm., ebracteate, female fls c. 10–20, close-set, becoming more lax at maturity with internodes up to 5 mm. long at base of spike, 1.5 mm. long above. Glumes for the most part ½–¾ length of utricles, persistent, broadly ovate, obtuse or lowermost subacute, coriac., bright chestnut-brown with green or light brown midrib and broad, whitish, hyaline margins. Utricles 4.5–5.5 × 1–2 mm., plano-convex, oblong or obovate, dark brown with ∞ faint veins, beak 1–1.5 mm. long, stipe c. 1 mm. long.

DIST.: S. Known only from Fox Peak, Canterbury; hills near Dunedin, Ben Lomond and Mt Benger, Otago.

In grassland.

One red-coloured plant was collected from Swampy Hill, Dunedin (WELTU.)

The sp. is close to U. fuscovaginata var. caespitans but differs in its much more slender habit, in having only faintly scabrid lvs and in the bright chestnut-brown colour of the glumes which are in general markedly shorter than the utricles.