Flora of New Zealand Series

Bright green, often low-growing, grass-like tufts 3-30 cm high, with short stems hidden among leaves; rhizome short to long. Spikes 2-5, crowded, hidden, very pale green, < 1 cm long. Utricles pubescent all over. Stigmas 3.

N. Almost throughout; not known from Gisborne. S. Nelson; Marlborough; Canterbury; Otago; Fiordland - Lakes Te Anau and Manapouri. Lowland to montane tussock grassland. (Celebes, New Guinea, Australia, Norfolk and Lord Howe Is)

C. breviculmis may flower in September, ± 2 months earlier than most carices in N.Z. Though the pubescent utricles are distinctive, the flower heads are hidden among the leaves and the sp. is often mistaken for a grass.

Tolerant of trampling and rarely grazed; a significant patch-forming weed in low density reverting pasture in hill country in high rainfall areas, and in modified tussock grassland. It occurs occasionally in lawns, and, as a persistent weed in cracks in concrete paths, is hard to kill.