Carex lachenalii Schkuhr
C. lagopina Wahl. in K. svenska Vet. Akad. Handl. 24, 1803, 145.
Type: ? Recorded from Europe, North Asia and North America.
Tufted from an ascending rhizome. Culms 3–10–(20) cm. × c. 1 mm., trigonous, wiry, glab., occ. scabrid above; basal sheaths cream, grey or light brown. Lvs us. < culms, < 2 mm. wide, slightly striated, channelled, sts flat, grasslike, tips obtuse to subacute, margins faintly serrulate towards the tip. Infl. a single dark brown terminal head, 8–15 mm. long, of 2–4 contiguous spikes; subtending bracts not conspicuously different from glumes. Spikes androgynous, 5–8 mm. long, male fls at base of spike. Glumes ± =, or slightly < utricles, broadly ovate, obtuse or sub-acute, dark brown with a lighter brown midrib and very broad, pale brown, hyaline margins. Utricles 2.5–3 × c. 1.5 mm., plano-convex, oblong-ovoid, indistinctly nerved, margins glab., contracted to a narrow dark brown to black beak slightly > 0.5 mm. long, puckered below to a broad pale brown stipe, < 0.5 mm. long. Stigmas 2. Nut c. 1.5 mm. long, oblong-obovoid to almost orbicular, light brown.
DIST.: S. Nelson, Canterbury, Otago and Fiordland.
Rather local, at altitudes from 1,100–1,800 m.
HYBRIDISM
Carex hybrids are constantly reported throughout the world and Cockayne and Allan (Ann. Bot. 48, 1934, 13–14) considered that hybridism was "rife" in N.Z. Carex. They recorded dissita × lambertiana, × solandri; gaudichaudiana × subdola, × ternaria; lambertiana × solandri; lucida × testacea; petriei × wakatipu; subdola × ternaria; secta × virgata; of "doubtful" status were appressa × secta; inversa × resectans; kirkii × trachycarpa; for the latter they note that "herbarium evidence suggests that a hybrid swarm occurs" on Mt Arthur, Nelson, but I have seen no specimens from Mt Arthur which were intermediate between C. kirkii and C. trachycarpa; they also list comans × pulchella but I regard C. pulchella and C. comans as conspecific.
Another hybrid C. litorosa × comans (Esler, T.R.S.N.Z. Bot. 1, 1962, 306 but marked with a query) has been recorded, and at Kahui, Mt Egmont, A. P. Druce collected C. comans × dissita together with the putative parents; this latter hybrid and its parents are growing in cultivation at Lincoln.
Carex
I have seen no herbarium evidence for "rife" hybridism in but have recognised a sterile hybrid C. diandra × secta (N.Z. J. Bot. 2, 1964, 279-285). Closer field study may yet disclose further hybrids.
C. parkeri Petrie in T.N.Z.I. 13, 1881, 332, from "A hill near Mt Aspiring, 5,000 ft," by its description matches C. lachenalii but no specimens could be found.
Distinguished by the very short glume-like bracts subtending the infl., by the small red-brown spikes and the wingless, scarcely beaked utricles.
Specimens from Sweden determined as C. lachenalii have redder brown spikes which are more rounded at the top than those of N.Z. specimens. The Swedish specimens also have a distinct utricle-beak so that the utricles are noticeably > glumes.
INCERTAE SEDIS
Several specimens (at CHR) collected in Nelson by Mr H. Talbot and others on the Gouland Downs, at Canaan, on Mt Arthur, Mt Balloon and Mt Owen, all on limestone, suggest that there may be an unnamed calcicolous sp. in this area. The tufts (3–20 cm. high) are stiff and shortly rhizomatous; the lvs (c. 2.5 mm. wide) are double-folded with margins and keel us. reddish and thickened; the spikes (3–5) are us. close-packed and sessile (but the lowest may be more distant and pedunculate); the light brown membr. glumes are shorter than the utricles and have fimbriate margins at the tip and a scarcely excurrent midrib; the utricles (2–3 × c. 1.5 mm.) are dark brown to reddish black above, smooth, glab., and scarcely beaked; and the stigmas vary from 2–3.
No specimens of the following spp. have been traced:
C. australis Link ex Boeck. in Linnaea 41, 1877, 178. "Patria non indicata."
C. coxiana Petrie in T.N.Z.I. 56, 1926, 6. "Chatham Islands: W. Martin."
C. haasteana Boeck. in Flora 61, 1878, 168. "In Nova Selandia leg. Haast." The type at B was destroyed during the Second World War.
C. krullii Boeck. in Flora 65, 1882, 59. Chatham Islands, Krull.
C. longiacuminata Col. in T.N.Z.I. 21, 1889, 104. "Low swampy ground, margins of woods, south of Dannevirke, County of Waipawa; 1888: W.C."
C. novae-selandiae Boeck. in Flora 61, 1878, 169. "Nova Selandia: Haast." The type at B was destroyed during the Second World War.
C. polyneura Col. in T.N.Z.I. 21, 1889, 104. "Edges of streamlets, woods, south of Dannevirke, County of Waipawa; 1887: W.C."
C. quadrangulata Col. in T.N.Z.I. 17, 1885, 254. "Sides of water pools, open parts of the forest, Norsewood, County of Waipawa; 1884: W.C."
C. rotoensis Petrie in T.N.Z.I. 56, 1926, 9. "Te Roto, Chatham Islands: W. Martin."
C. sexspicata Col. in T.N.Z.I. 16, 1884, 342. "Edges of River Mangatawhainui, near Norsewood, 1883: W.C."
