Flora of New Zealand Series

Vauthiera australis A. Rich. Essai Fl. N.Z.  1832,  107, t. 20.

Cladium vauthiera C. B. Clarke ex Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl.  1906,  788.

Cladium australe (A. Rich.) Druce in Rep. bot. (Soc.) Exch. Cl. Manchr for 1916  4,  1917,  615.

Machaerina australis (A. Rich.) Koyama in Bot. Mag., Tokyo  69,  1956,  62.

Original locality: “Crescit in Nova-Zeelandia”. Lectotype: P, “Nlle Zélande (Astrolabe)”, no collector is given.

Rhizome 2–3 mm. diam., short and woody, bearing distant, membr., apiculate, dark brown scales. Culms 20–60–(150) cm. × 1–2.5 mm., densely packed, rigid, erect, quadrangular, glab., blue- or grey-green. Lvs all reduced to brown, sheathing, membr., mucronate bracts, or the upper 1–2 with laminae quadrangular like the culm or occ. trigonous, 5–25–(35) cm. long, with a subulate, pungent, dark brown tip. Infl. 1–3–(4) cm. × 5–7–(15) mm., a dense, contracted, spike-like head; subtending bract us. < infl. with a rigid, subulate awn up to 1.5 cm. long. Spikelets 1-fld, 4–5 mm. long, on short, stout, stiff stalks. Glumes 4–6, the lowest broadly ovate, mucronate, the upper ones ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, coriac., papillose with scabrid midrib and margins, midrib thickened; only the uppermost glume fertile, the rest empty. Hypog. scales 6, c. 0.5 mm. long, white and triangular when mature, connate at the base to form a 6-lobed persistent cup. Anthers with an elongated red connective. Nut c. 4 mm. long, ± trigonous, oblong-ellipsoid, smooth, shining, light brown, narrowed above to the persistent, scabrid style-base.

DIST.: N. Throughout. S. Throughout, but not common in Canterbury and Otago. St. Also on Big South Cape Id. Ch.

Damp places to 900 m. altitude, common in pakihi.

Plants of L. australe growing in a damp shaded ditch in the Puketi forest, Northland, had culms which were more than twice the normal length.

L. australe has been found at 1,350 m. altitude: CANU 8185, Red Hills, Wairau Valley, plateau, on ultramafic rock, C. J. Burrows, Mar., 1965.

Richard placed the N.Z. plant in the monotypic genus Vauthiera but Hooker transferred it to Lepidosperma because it had hypog. scales similar to those found in that genus. C. B. Clarke transferred the sp. to Cladium on the ground that the spikelets are invariably 1-fld, but Kükenthal (Fedde Repert. Spec. nov. Regn. veg. 50. 1941, 24) pointed out that there are 3 spp. of Lepidosperma, L. gladiatum, L. perplanum and L. pauperum, which are either constantly 1-fld or occ. so. In L. laterale, as well, 1-fld spikelets are occ. found. Blake (Contrib. Qd Herb. no. 8, 1969, 29) notes “This species has broad thick (though small) hypogynous scales and leaves with ligules, characters not found in species of Cladium sens. lat. and I agree with J. D. Hooker, Kükenthal and Kern that the species belongs in Lepidosperma. (L. australe (A. Rich.) Hook. f.).”

Hooker (Handbk N.Z. Fl. 1864, 307) referred this sp. to Lepidosperma tetragonum Labill. Nov. Holl. Pl. Spec. 1, 1805, 17, t. 17, and this name was used by many authors in T.N.Z.I. until 1906 when the first edition of Cheeseman's Manual appeared. The Australian L. tetragonum is now placed by Blake in Baumea.