Flora of New Zealand Series

Isolepis nodosa (Rottb.) R.Br. Prodr.  1810,  221.

Holoschoenus nodosus (Rottb.) Dietr. Sp. Pl.  2,  1833,  165.

Type locality: S. African. An austral circumpolar sp.

Rhizome short, 5–10 mm. diam., woody, covered with red-brown bracts 5–10 mm. long. Culms (15)–30–90–(120) cm.×1–2 mm., densely crowded on the rhizome, rush-like, rigid, erect, terete or slightly compressed, striated when dry. Lvs reduced to 3–6 basal sheaths, the uppermost 5–13 cm. long, brown or red-brown, the oblique orifice slightly dilated. Infl. an apparently lateral, solitary, hemispherical head, 0.7–1.5 cm. wide, of ∞, densely crowded, sessile spikelets; subtending bract continuous with the culm, rigid, erect, pungent, > infl. Spikelets 3–4 mm. long, ovoid, light brown. Glumes broadly ovate, obtuse, margins entire, ± apiculate, reddish towards the tip, lateral nerves conspicuous. Hypog. bristles 0. Stamens 3. Style-branches 3. Nut c. 1 mm. long, < 1 mm. wide, plano-convex to trigonous, apiculate, dark brown to black, shining.

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

Abundant, especially near the coast, from sea level to 600 m. altitude.

Skottsberg (Acta Soc. Fauna Flora fenn. 72, no. 20, 1955, 1) gives an account of the variation in the glumes and in the shape and size of the nut throughout the range of the sp.