Flora of New Zealand Series

C. dissita Boott var. lambertiana (Boott) Cheesem. in T.N.Z.I. 16, 1884, 437.

Original localities: "Northern Island; in woods, etc., frequent, Banks and Solander, Sinclair, etc." Lectotype: K, "New Zealand, Auckland/Bay of Islands", Sinclair; selected by Hamlin (Rec. Dom. Mus., Wellington 6, 1968, 100).

Tufts robust, lfy, 60–100 cm. tall. Culms 1–2 mm. diam., trigonous, smooth; basal sheaths dark grey-brown or purple-black. Lvs ± = culms, 3–6 mm. wide, double-folded, bright green or yellow-green, margins finely scabrid. Spikes 5–8; terminal 1–(3) spikes male; remaining spikes female, often male at the base, 1.5–5 cm. × 5–7 mm., cylindrical, uppermost spikes approximate and sessile, lower spikes more distant, erect, on short, stiff peduncles. Glumes (excluding awn) ± = utricles, ovate, pinkish brown to chestnut-brown, membr., hyaline margins often very broad, tip deeply emarginate, the light green or brown midrib produced to a scabrid awn. Utricles 2.5–3.5 × c. 1.5 mm., biconvex, obovoid, turgid, us. brown throughout with distinct, paler brown nerves, shining; beak slightly < 1 mm. long, bifid, with very divergent crura, margins and orifice scabrid. Stigmas 3. Nut c. 1.5 mm. long, trigonous, light to dark brown, surface minutely pitted.

DIST.: N. From North Cape southwards to lat. 38º, rare further south. S. Marlborough Sounds, Nelson, rare in Canterbury.

Lowland in forest, scrub or swamps, us. not far from the coast.

The deeply emarginate glumes are characteristic of this sp. and distinguish it from C. dissita and C. ochrosaccus. Though C. lambertiana is similar to C. dissita in many respects it differs also in being more robust with larger spikelets and in having obovoid, and not ovoid, utricles.