Flora of New Zealand Series

A. linearis var. subulata Hook. f. Fl. Antarct.  1,  1844,  76.

Type locality: Campbell Id, in the mountains. Lectotype: K, J. D. Hooker n. 1622, Dec. 1840, left-hand specimen.

Turf-forming herb, us. in extensive patches on peat which it helps to produce. Stem c. 1 mm. diam., traceable down into peat sts for many cm., us. closely branched and interwoven, giving off stout roots to within a few nodes of stem-apex. Lvs c. 10–20 mm. long, erect, almost fleshy; sheath membr., clad abaxially in long pale scales, narrowing abruptly into subulate lamina; lamina terete or shallowly channelled near base, flattened laterally at obtuse tip, adaxial surface indicated by narrow strip of caducous scales, otherwise almost glab. except for pencil of short apical scales that become brown-centred with age; no nerves visible. Infl. erect, ± = lvs, panicle represented by only 1–3 fls; spathe us. single, ± foliaceous, laterally flattened towards tip, its cup-shaped sheath enclosing basal fl. Fls with few scales; per. divided to base; tepals 3–5–6 mm. long, spreading in ♂, ± erect in ♀. Ovary very narrow-ovoid, 1-locular; ovules ∞. Fr. (7)–10–13–(23) × 3–5 mm.; pericarp succulent, orange, reddish towards narrow tip. Seeds c. 1.2 × 1 mm., shining black, rounded pyriform; funicle hardened into small beak.

DIST.: S., Buller County; Paparoa Range. St., A., C.

Cushion bogs.

FL. 11–1. FT. 1–4.

While the South Id specimens undoubtedly belong to this sp., their lvs differ from those of the islands further south in being covered not only at the tip but sts over most of the convex, morphologically abaxial surface with short, brown-centred scales, and also in the more pronounced blunt tooth at the tip.

The fruits (Morice Bull. Wellington bot. Soc. No. 35, 1968, 41) differ considerably from those of A. linearis. They are smaller and relatively narrower, and the pericarp, instead of being clear red as in A. linearis, is orange throughout, the surface only reddish towards the tip, just as in Sect. Tricella. On plants brought from the Paparoa Range by I. M. Morice and I. Robins, frs were single and arcuate, each curving against a solitary innovation shoot. In 100 of these frs I. M. Morice counted 882 seeds, mostly 1–16 per fr., but more in 9 frs. the highest number being 22.