Carex cirrhosa Berggr.
C. cirrhosa Bergg. var. lutescens Kük. in Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. 1906, 825.
Type locality: "ad flumen Waimakariri in alpibus insulae australis Novae Zelandiae". Type. LD, S. Berggren, Feb. 1874; isotypes at WELT and K.
Tufts small, dense, grey-green or reddish. Culms 1─4 cm. long, completely enclosed by the light brown lf-sheaths. Lvs (2.5)–4–12–(20) cm. × 0.5–1 mm., narrow-linear, concavo-convex, adaxial surface matt, shining abaxially, margins incurved, scabrid, tip subobtuse, curled and twisted when dry. Infl. of 2–5 spikes sunk among the lvs; terminal 1–(2) spikes entirely male; lower 1–3 spikes female, 3–8 × c. 2 mm., occ. with a few male fls at the base or the top, crowded round base of male spike, lowest spikes slightly distant, ± pedunculate, rarely compound, bracts subtending female spikes lf-like, > spikes. Glumes slightly < utricles, or ± = utricle if awned, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate or cuspidate, hyaline, white or pale pink, occ. dotted with red, with a slightly thicker sts green midrib. Utricles c. 2–3 × 1–1.5 mm., plano-convex, elliptic-ovoid, yellow-green in lower half and on beak, pinkish brown in upper portion, nerved, sessile, margins glab., or minutely scabrid above, abruptly narrowed to an acute bidentate beak, c. 0.5 mm. long or longer, margins and orifice finely scabrid. Stigmas 2. Nut c. 1.5 mm. long, biconvex, oblong-ovoid, brown.
DIST.: N. Near Lake Waikaremoana, Kaweka Lakes at foot of Kaweka Range, Lake Wairarapa. S. In scattered localities in Canterbury between c. lat. 42º and c. 44º.
Occ. lowland but us. from 600–1,000 m. altitude, on margins of lakes and ponds and in river beds.
In cultivation the culms may be up to 18 cm. long and the spikes all distant.
C. cirrhosa var. lutescens Kük. was described as "culms taller, 2–4 in. high. Spikelets longer and further apart, the lowest one sometimes remote. Utricle narrow-elliptic; beak longer." Lectotype: AK, 2688, Lake Lyndon, Canterbury Alps, T. F. Cheeseman, Jan., 1880; selected by Hamlin (Rec. Dom. Mus., Wellington 6, 1968, 108).
C. cirrhosa may be distinguished from other small spp. of Carex (except C. decurtata) by its tufted and not rhizomatous habit. From C. decurtata and most of the other dwarf spp. it is distinct in having 2 stigmas only.
