Flora of New Zealand Series

C. dissita Boott var. monticola Kük. in Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. 1906, 831.

Original localities: "Northern Island; Bay of Islands, Auckland and East Coast, Banks and Solander, Sinclair, Colenso, etc." Lectotype: K, Auckland, Sinclair; selected by Hamlin (Rec. Dom. Mus., Wellington 6, 1968, 100).

Very shortly rhizomatous; green lfy tufts, drooping above, (15)–45–80–(100) cm. high. Culms 0.5–1.5–(1.7) mm. diam., trigonous, striated, edges smooth; basal sheaths light brown, grey-brown or often dark red-purple. Lvs > or < culms, 1.5–5 mm. wide, double-folded, bright green or yellow-green, or red-green with red margins and midvein red abaxially, margins finely scabrid. Spikes (4)–5–7–(8); terminal spike male, rarely with a few female fls at the top or with 1–2 very small male spikes at the base; remaining spikes female, us. with a few male fls at the base, more rarely male at the top, 0.5–2.5–(3) cm. × 4–6 mm., uppermost spikes erect on very short peduncles, ± distant, lowest spike often quite remote and drooping from a slender peduncle. Glumes (excluding awn) slightly < utricles, ovate, emarginate to almost entire, pale reddish green or light brown, to dark red-brown with paler margins, membr., midrib broad, pale brown, occ. bright red-purple or straw-coloured, with 3 distinct, almost white, nerves produced to a us. short scabrid mucro. Utricles 2–3 × c. 1.5 mm., biconvex, turgid, ovoid, yellow-brown at the base, red-purple to almost black above, abaxial face us. lighter coloured and more distinctly nerved than the other, margins occ. very finely scabrid below the beak; beak c. 0.5 mm. long, almost white, deeply bifid with divergent crura, orifice scabrid; stipe c. 0.3 mm. long. Stigmas 3. Nut c. 1.5 mm. long, trigonous, ovoid, light brown.

DIST.: N., S., St.

Throughout in forest, scrub or swampy ground from sea level to c. 1,200 m. altitude.

The distant, dark brown, rather short and stout, us. shortly pedunculate female spikes are a characteristic feature of this sp.

C. dissita var. monticola Kük. was described as "smaller, 6–18 in. high. Leaves narrower. Spikelets 3–5, small, ¼─½ in. long, sessile or very shortly peduncled. . . . Not uncommon in turfy swamps in the mountains of both islands"; type, WELT, 12181, Bealey 600 m., L. Cockayne 1569, Jan., 1893. Specimens from higher altitudes are often small, noticeably rhizomatous, and have reddish green lvs with red midrib and margins, but some are not markedly smaller than normal C. dissita and the red coloration is found in larger lowland specimens, especially those from Nelson, Westland, Fiordland and Stewart Id.