Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: Stewart Id. Type: CHR, 64636, Ringa Ringa Bay, Paterson Inlet, shaded coastal cliff, I. A. McNeur, 24/1/1949.

Thickly tufted, often prostrate or drooping, from a slender ascending rhizome c. 0.5 mm. diam. Culms 3–30 cm. × 0.5–1 mm., rather lax; 1–2 basal bracts per culm, membr., grey-brown or sometimes red-purple. Lvs (1)–2–3–(4), < or ± = culms, < 1 mm. wide, sheath often streaked with red-purple. Infl. apparently lateral, c. (3)–4–5 × (3) –5–9 mm., us. almost semicircular in outline, of 2–5 ovate, obtuse, close-packed spikelets; subtending bract much > infl., up to 10 cm. long, rigid, as wide as a foliage lf, red-purple at base, occ. a second shorter bract present. Spikelets deep red-purple, almost black, at base, distally green at first but turning grey-brown; at times entirely grey-green. Glumes 2–2.5 mm. long, lanceolate, acute, membr., tinged with red-purple, keel very thick, green, slightly excurrent. Hypog. bristles 0. Stamens 2–1, rarely 3 in lower glumes. Style-branches 3. Nut c. 1 × 0.5 mm., c. ½ length of glume, trigonous with angles slightly thickened, elliptical, smooth, pale cream, shortly stipitate and apiculate.

DIST.: N. Near Wellington. S. Westland, Fiordland and southern coast of Southland. St., C., A.

Near the coast, us. on peat banks above the shore.

The record (Edgar loc. cit.) from the Chatham Is would have been better cited as doubtful, as there may have been confusion between labels and the sp. is not among the recent extensive collections from the Chathams.

The spikelets are us. noticeably two-coloured. The lower part is dark red-purple, but towards the tip only the green keels of the glumes can be seen.

The sp. resembles lfy forms of S. inundatus in size, in number of spikelets and in the 3 style-branches and pale cream trigonous nuts. S. practextatus is more lfy, however, with a much longer bract subtending the infl.; it us. has more than 1 stamen per glume, and the glumes are lanceolate, acute and strongly keeled, instead of ovate, obtuse, with the keel not prominent as in S. inundatus.