Luzula campestris (L.) DC.
Grass-like, loosely tufted, stoloniferous or rhizomatous. Leaves (1) -2-3 mm wide, < stems, bright green, soft and flaccid, with long silky hairs scattered along margins, tip obtuse. Flowering stems 5-15- (30) cm high, slender, often drooping. Inflorescence of 3-6, few-flowered oblong clusters ± 5 mm diam. on slender drooping peduncles. Flowers 3-3.5 mm long, not close-set, with bases of flowers and rhachis between them visible; tepals very dark brown with brownish membranous margins. Stamens 6; anthers 2-6 times longer than filaments. Capsule < tepals, greenish-brown. Seeds with conspicuous white caruncle.
N. Southwards from Kerikeri; scattered. In second class and reverting grassland. (Europe)
First record: Edgar 1966: 181. Hooker' s early record of L. campestris in Fl. N.Z. 1, 1853. 264 referred only to the indigenous forms of Luzula which were later treated by Buchenau (Bot. Jahrb. 12, 1890, 1-495) as varietally distinct from Northern Hemisphere plants. It was not until 1958 that H. Nordenskiöld noticed, when collecting Luzula in N.Z. for cytogenetic studies, that whereas seeds of L. campestris sens. strict. and closely related spp. in the Northern Hemisphere have a conspicuous caruncle, in all native N.Z. spp. the caruncle is minute. By using this character she could recognize adventive Luzula spp. easily in the field.
First collection: "Boundary Road, Hamilton", A.L. Poole, 9.10.1938 (CHR 45084).
