Flora of New Zealand Series

C. stellulata Good. in Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond.  2,  1794,  144.

C. stellulata Good. var. australis Kük. in Pflanzenr. 38, 1909, 230.

Type: ? Recorded from Europe, Asia, North America and Australia.

Loosely tufted from an ascending rhizome; tufts ± flaccid. Culms (3.5)–6–35 cm. × c. 0.5 mm., subtrigonous, glab.; basal sheaths grey or light brown. Lvs us. < culms, 0.5–1.5 mm. wide, channelled to flat, margins scabrid, tapering towards the subacute tip. Infl. a compound spike 1.5–4 cm. long, green or pale brown, of 3–5 ± distant spikes, utricles widely spreading when ripe and individual spikes star-shaped; lowest spike us. subtended by a filiform scabrid bract c. ½ length of infl. Spikes androgynous, 3–7 mm. long, male fls at the base of each spike; plants occ. almost dioec. Glumes c. 1/2 length of utricle, membr., light brown, with a pale cream or green well-marked midrib and hyaline margins. Utricles 2.5–4 × c. 1.5 mm., plano-convex, us. distinctly nerved; contracted above to a narrow, dark brown beak with green, slightly or distinctly scabrid margins and slightly bifid orifice; puckered below to a rather indistinct stipe c. 2 mm. long. Stigmas 2. Nut slightly < 2 mm. long, ± biconvex, oblong-ovoid, pale brown.

DIST.: N. Southwards from lat. 37º 30'. S. Throughout, but not recorded from Marlborough. St.

In boggy ground or on stream banks from 500–1,500 m. altitude, descending to sea level in the west and south of South Id and in Stewart Id.

C. stellulata Good. is based on a European type.

C. stellulata var. australis remains of uncertain status. It was based on several South Id collections including WELT 21656, wet ground, Lake Brunner, L. Cockayne 1576, Nov., 1898. Kükenthal distinguished this var. by its flaccid habit and utricles with glab. or scarcely scabrid margins. Most N.Z. specimens are more slender than the few European ones examined but the utricles in many N.Z. specimens are distinctly scabrid.

The star-shaped arrangement of the mature spreading utricles is clearly seen when the plants are viewed from above.