Carex ovalis Gooden.
Dense tufts; rhizome short. Stems 20-60-(120) cm high, 3-angled, scabrid just below inflorescence. Leaves 1.5-3.5 mm wide, usually < stems, ± flat, ± soft, bright green, sheaths light brown. Inflorescence a compact ovoid head 2.5-4- (6) cm long, of 3-5- (11) approximate, sessile, light green to light brown spikes; bracts glume-like and inconspicuous or > inflorescence and ± setaceous. Spikes androgynous, male flowers at base. Glumes = or slightly < utricles, light brown with paler green to brown midrib, acute. Utricles 4-4.5 × ± 2 mm, ovoid, plano-convex, distinctly nerved, with winged margins almost covered by glumes, scabrid towards the tapered beak of ± 1 mm long. Stigmas 2. Nut plano-convex, ± oblong.
N., S., St. Throughout in damp and swampy places, along drains, in undergrowth at forest margins and along forest tracks, also in damp tussock grassland; sea-level to c. 1200 m. (Europe, Asia, N. Africa)
First record: Cheeseman 1882: 301, as C. leporina L.
First collection: Near Makara, [Wellington], T. Kirk, Nov. 1879 (WELT 21578).
A widely occurring, often locally common, weed of swampy places, including logging tracks and wet places in forest clearings, drains, and pasture on wet soils. Leaves of older plants tend to become lax and ± prostrate, effectively smothering small associated plants. C. ovalis is ± unpalatable, and the patches of matted, flattened leaves and tufts with bare or open centres are noticeable in infested grassland.
