Sporadanthus F.Muell.
Plants dioec. Infl. in both sexes a terminal cymose panicle. Glumes scarcely imbricate. Fls ∞, sessile or pedicellate; bractlets 2. Tepals 6, glume-like. ♂ with 3 stamens; anthers 1-celled; ovary rud. ♀ with 3 staminodia; ovary 1-locular; style 1. Fr. a capsule, dehiscing longitudinally. Perennial, rhizomatous, stout. Culms erect, much-branched. Lvs reduced to persistent scale-like sheaths. Monotypic, confined to N.Z.
Mueller (Fragm. Phyt. Austr. 8, 1873, 79) originally described the N.Z. sp. as Lepyrodia traversii from male specimens only. Later he received a female specimen and considered the fr. to be nucular and not capsular; on this basis, and because of "its dispersion of flowers", he formed a separate genus which he named Sporadanthus (T.N.Z.I. 6, 1874, 389) but he did not formally publish the combination Sporadanthus traversii at that time. Mueller was incorrect in describing the fr. as nucular, and his material was too mature for him to observe the single style which distinguishes Sporadanthus from the 3-styled spp. of Lepyrodia.
Bentham and Hooker (Gen. Pl. 3, 1883, 1030) placed the sp. in Lepyrodia, describing the fr. as dehiscing longitudinally. They noticed the 1-locular ovary, but in the absence of any styles ("stylis iam delapsis") assumed this to be the result of abortion. Cheeseman (Ill. N.Z. Fl. 1914, pl. 208) wrote "After a careful examination of young flowers, I have been unable to find any trace of the ovary being 3-celled, nor does the ovary ever contain more than a single ovule". Cheeseman's observations have been confirmed; fls invariably have 1 style and a 1-locular ovary; the fr. is a capsule which dehisces longitudinally.
