Flora of New Zealand Series

U. riparia R.Br. var. hookeri (Boott) Kük. in Pflanzenr. 38, 1909, 63.

Original localities: "Lord Auckland's group and Campbell's Island; grassy places in the woods, also on the rocks at the tops of the hills." Type: K, Auckland Is., Hooker.

Dense, stiff tufts from a slender rhizome c. 1mm. diam. Culms 4–10–(25) cm. × c. 0.5 mm., glab.; basal bracts dark brown. Lvs 5–9 per culm, much > flowering culms but us. only slightly < fruiting culms, 1.5–2 mm. wide, dark green, rigid, involute, scabrid on margins and upper surface towards tip. Spikes (1)–2–3.5 cm. × c. 3 mm., greenish brown, female fls c. 10–20, crowded towards top of spike with internodes 1–3 mm. long, more distant in lower third of spike with internodes up to 4 mm. long. Glumes ± = or slightly > utricles, deciduous, lanceolate, acute, membr., light or dark brown, us. with a prominent green midrib and two very dark brown lateral veins, margin pale brown. Utricles 4–5 mm. long, slightly < 1 mm. diam., trigonous or subtrigonous, oblong or lanceolate, light green, nerved, occ. only faintly so on the two abaxial surfaces, slightly contracted at the base to a stipe c. 1 mm. long, beak 1–1.5 mm. long; strongly spreading when ripe.

DIST.: Ant., A., C., M.

Common in tussock grassland, us. between 300 and 600 m. altitude but also descending to sea level.

The Macquarie Id record is probably correct though Hamlin (1959, p. 63) reports seeing only poor specimens.