Flora of New Zealand Series

A. nervosa var. chathamica Skottsb. in K. svenska Vet. Akad. Handl.  14,  1934,  62.

Type locality: Chatham Id. Type: K, Travers. This appears to be the only sp. on Chatham Is; earlier records of different spp. probably all refer to this same plant.

Robust tufted plant. Lvs 60–200 × 4–10 cm., keeled near the sheath, less so in main part of lamina; sheath-base white, with close scales on both surfaces; lamina adaxially silvered green with a metallic sheen, covered with a thin but long-persistent clear pellicle that lifts off in strips from old lvs; abaxial surface with a pale grey satiny indumentum of appressed scales with very little wool, the single main costa on each side of midrib little if at all stronger than midrib and not prominent. Infl. large and erect, most parts shaggy with narrow scales at least when young; lower spathes long; racemes ∞, all spathes except the smallest subtending sub-infls of 2–3 or more racemes. Fls pedicellate and us. well spaced; ♂ pale, tepals to 8 × 2.5–3 mm., strongly reflexed soon after fl. opens; per.-tube very short, drooping around pedicel and so exposing the base of the pistillode; outer tepals scaly externally; ♀ colour not known, tepals more scaly, longer and proportionately narrower than in related spp. Ovary 3-locular; style rather well-developed. Fr. c. 10 × 10 mm., subglobose, orange; matured per. fleshy, the tube retroflexed and much shorter than the persistent, membr., ± curled-under tepals.

DIST.: Ch.

In wet peaty soil.

FL. 10. FT. 3–7.

In most infls seen the bracteoles near the tips of the racemes are long and conspicuous, projecting far beyond the fls. In some other spp. this development appears sporadically rather than as a consistent specific character.