Flora of New Zealand Series

F. velata R.Br. Prodr.  1810,  227.

F. squarrosa Vahl var. velata (R.Br.) C. B. Clarke in Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. 1906, 770.

Type locality: S. American.

Tufted, often spreading annual, us. white-pubescent in all its parts. Culms 3–16–(20) cm. × c. 0.5 mm., ∞, flaccid. Lvs us. < culms, filiform; sheaths much broader, light brown. Infl. us. a compound umbel, 1–4 cm. long, occ. reduced to a few spikelets only; subtending bracts 3–4, lf-like, 1–2 often > umbel. Spikelets 3.5–5–(7) mm. long, us. stalked, pale brown. Glumes ∞, elliptic, with a prominent, rigid, green, scabrid keel, often forming an excurrent mucro, and often recurved in the lowermost glume of a spikelet. Stamens us. 1. Style 2-fid, the bulbous base ringed with fine cilia hanging downwards over the ovary, not quite reaching to the mid-point. Nut slightly < 1 mm. long, c. 0.5 mm. diam., biconvex, orbicular, smooth, cream.

DIST.: N. Bay of Islands, Auckland, Port Waikato, and at hot springs at Rotorua.

In warm soil.

FL. 11–1. FT. 12–2.

F. velata R.Br. is based on an Australian type.

The relationship of F. squarrosa and its 2 vars to other closely related spp. has been much discussed (Kern, Reinwardtia 6, 1961, 49; Koyama, J. Fac. Sci. Tokyo Univ. (Bot.) 8, 1961, 116; Gordon-Gray, J. S. Afr. Bot. 34, 1968, 383–384). At this time it seems best to leave N.Z. plants in F. squarrosa.

Hooker (Handbk N.Z. Fl. 1864, 303), who regarded the N.Z. plants as F. dichotoma Vahl, suggested that the sp. might have been introduced into N.Z.