Flora of New Zealand Series

Oioi.

Type: CHR 177053, Brooklands lagoon, near mouth of Waimakariri R., north end opposite Spencer Park, damp sand, brackish water, E. Edgar, 20/12/1967.

Rhizome 3–7 mm. diam., closely covered by dark brown, imbricating scales, 1–2 cm. long, each enclosing a tuft of coarse brown hairs. Culms 50–150–(180) cm. × 1.5–2.5 mm., us. densely packed, erect, simple, terete, grey-green, yellow-green, or reddish. Lvs reduced to bract-like sheaths, dark brown, almost black, spaced at intervals of 7–9 cm. at the base of the culm, of 4–6 cm. higher up; margins entire. Male and female infls dissimilar. Male spikelets stalked, in panicles or fascicles; upper floral bracts ovate-lanceolate, mucronate, red-brown with membr. margins. ♂, tepals 6–4, almost completely hyaline, the outer longer, brownish, the inner shorter, paler; stamens 3; ovary rud. Female spikelets ± sessile, fascicled; upper floral bracts ovate, mucronate, > tepals. ♀, tepals 6, the outer keeled, lanceolate, acuminate, the inner flat, smaller, almost hyaline, more obtuse, mucronate; styles 3, united to midway, bright red; staminodes 0. Fr. c. 1 × 0.5 mm., triquetrous, ind. Seed c. 1 × 0.4 mm., oblong-elliptical, golden-brown, surface with reticulate markings, apiculate at each end, one end dark brown, the other pale, almost white.

DIST.: N., S., St., Ch.

Coastal among dunes and in salt marshes. Inland on marshy lake shores in N. and S., and near hot springs at Rotorua and Lake Taupo.

FL. 10–12. FT. 12–3.

Leptocarpus simplex var. fasciculatus Hook. f. Fl. N.Z. 1, 1853, 266, t. 61 B. Type: K, Herb. Hooker., Massacre Bay, Lyall. Described by Hooker as "a much larger and more robust plant than L. simplex with fascicles of flowers collected in dense somewhat panicled sessile heads nearly an inch long." No good reason has been found for recognising two vars within the sp.