Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: Akaroa. Type: P, Croix de Belligny.

Densely caespitose, often wiry, blue-green. Culms 30–60 cm. long, < 1mm. diam., scabrid above, only faintly so when mature; lower basal sheaths dark brown, uppermost sheath bright pink above. Lvs (1)–2–3 per culm, < culms, us. c. 1 mm. wide and involute, rarely up to 2 mm. wide and flat, scabrid on the margins and upper surface. Spikes (4)–7–15 cm. × 2–3 mm., female fls c. 10–20, distant, internodes up to 15 mm. long at base of spike, decreasing to 4 mm. long above. Glumes < utricles, persistent, ± obtuse, subcoriac., or membr., midrib conspicuous, green, remainder hyaline, colourless or red-tinged. Utricles 5–7 × c. 1 mm., plano-convex, oblong, nerved on the dorsal side, scarcely stipitate, very slightly narrowed to a scabrid beak slightly < 2 mm. long.

DIST.: N. Southwards from lat. 41º. S. On the east side as far south as Dunedin; very rare in Westland.

Scrub and forest up to 700 m. altitude; most common near the coast.

U. leptostachya resembles the 2 following forest spp., U. scabra and U. distans in having scabrid utricles and a lax-fld infl., but differs in the narrow, inrolled blue-green lvs and the pink colouring of the uppermost lf-sheath. The same pink coloration is found in lf-sheaths of U. laxiflora but that sp. has glab. utricles and wider, us. flat lvs. The sheaths of U. strictissima are also red-coloured but that sp. has a very distinct rush-like habit.