Flora of New Zealand Series

C. cinnamomea Cheesem. in T.N.Z.I. 14, 1882, 301 non Boott in Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond. (Bot.) 20, 1846, 136.

C. forsteri Wahl. var. cockayniana (Kük.) Kük. in Pflanzenr. 38, 1909, 695.

Original localities: "Graham River and other tributaries of the Motueka rising in Mt Arthur. Sources of the Takaka River, ascending to 3,500 feet altitude". Type: AK, 2828, Takaka River, 3,000 ft, T. F. Cheeseman, Jan., 1881.

Culms 15–60 cm. × 1–2 mm., smooth, trigonous, often drooping; basal sheaths dark red-brown. Lvs > culms, up to 80 cm. long, 3–6.5 mm. wide, double-folded, margins of upper half sharply scabrid. Infl. of (2)–4–8 ± distant, red-brown or light brown spikes, the upper sessile, the lower drooping on filiform peduncles; terminal 1–(2) spikes entirely male or with few to ∞ female fls at the top, remaining spikes female with a few ± distant male fls at the base, 1–7 × 0.5–1 cm. Glumes (excluding awn) ± = or slightly > utricles, ovate-lanceolate, acute and entire or slightly emarginate, membr., light red-brown with a thickened green midrib produced to a slightly scabrid awn 1–2 mm. long. Utricles 3–4 × c. 1 mm., unequally biconvex, fusiform, conspicuously costate when immature, turgid, smooth and slightly spreading when mature, yellowish brown, margins glab.; beak narrow, 0.5–1 mm. long, very shortly bifid, orifice slightly scabrid; stipe < 0.5 mm. long. Stigmas 3. Nut 1.5–2 mm. long, trigonous, obovoid-ellipsoid, dark brown.

DIST.: N. Near Wellington. S. Marlborough, Nelson, Westland and Fiordland.

On margins of streams or in snow-tussock grassland from 600–1,200 m. altitude.

C. cockayniana differs from C. spinirostris in having stouter light red-brown or yellow-brown spikes. From C. forsteri it may be distinguished by the smooth surface and straight mouth of the utricles, which are shorter and have a shorter beak than those of C. forsteri.