Flora of New Zealand Series

T. muelleri Rohrb. in Verh. bot. Ver. Prov. Brandenb. 11, 1869, 95.

Raupo.

Type locality: Island of Cebu, Philippines. Known from one site on Ch. and regarded by Madden and Healy (T.R.S.N.Z. 87, 1959, 222, 228) as deliberately introduced from New Zealand.

Plants 1–3 m. tall, us. growing in large colonies, summer-green. Rhizome to 3–4 cm. diam., fleshy, with ∞ membr. scale lvs. Lf-sheath often > 30 cm. long; lamina 1–3 cm. wide, ± plano-convex at base, mesophyll spongy. Peduncle us. < lvs, c. 1 cm. diam. Infl. us. 30 cm. or more long, the female part ultimately c. 2.5 cm. diam., the male part narrower and either continuous with or separated ± widely from the female. Bracteoles in male part more ∞ than stamens, c. = anthers, narrow-linear proximally, broader at tip and there variously shortly laciniate, arising directly on axis and remaining ± curled up after fls fall. Male fl. almost sessile; filaments at first shorter than anther-width, elongating later; anthers 1–3, tipped with blunt extension of connective; pollen clear yellow, grains single. Bracteoles in female part very few, absent from many fls, c. = gynophore hairs, filiform except for a few-celled expansion at tip. Female fls very much smaller than male, several grouped on proximal part of a short compound pedicel. Ovary at fl. almost sessile, narrow-elliptic; style long, slender; stigma broader, spathulate, ± concave; gynophore hairs very ∞, barely reaching base of stigma, stiff, filiform, very narrowly clavate at tip. Gynophore elongating at fr. to 1–2 times style-length, hairs then confined to proximal third of gynophore and in groups or ± whorled; persistent stigmas brown. Carpodia oblong-obovate, tips just projecting between the hairs. Seed c. 1.2 mm. long, cuneate at base, truncate at tip, yellow. n = 30.

DIST.: K., N., S.

In marshy places.

FL. 12–1. FT. 4–5.

Mason and Moar (Bull. Wellington bot. Soc. No. 24, 1951, 6–9, fig. s.n.) give reasons for considering the N.Z. plant conspecific with the Australian T. muelleri. Briggs and Johnson (Contr. N.S.W. nat. Herb. 4, 1968, 57–69) discuss the status and relationships of the Australasian spp. of Typha and confidently place T. muelleri in synonymy under T. orientalis.