Carex paniculata L.
[Overseas specimens: Densely tufted; basal sheaths dark brown; rhizome very short.] Stems to ± 80 cm high, 3-angled, margins sharply scabrid. Leaves < stems, ± 5 mm wide. Inflorescence to 15 cm long, a stiff, erect, shortly branched panicle branches 1.5-2 cm long, lower ones more distant. Spikes numerous, sessile, crowded on branches, ± 4 mm long, reddish-brown, androgynous, male flowers terminal. Glumes ± = utricles, membranous, red-brown at base with wide hyaline margins, midnerve ± prominent, scabrid above, occasionally produced to a short mucro. Utricles ± 2.5 mm long, plano-convex, faintly nerved near base, light greenish-brown, tapering to a beak ± 1 mm long with winged scabrid margins; base cordate, stipe short. Stigmas 2. [Nut immature.]
N. Auckland City, Cheeseman [1902] (K); the specimen is undated but was deposited at Kew by C. B. Clarke on 22 March 1903. The only known record of C. paniculata in N.Z. (Europe, W. Asia)
First record: ‡
C. paniculata has a very distinctive dark base and the N.Z. specimen lacks the base; however, the utricles in Cheeseman' s specimen match those of European specimens of C. paniculata and are quite unlike those from any related N.Z. spp.
