Eleocharis acuta R.Br.
E. acuta R. Br. var. platylepis Hook. f. Handbk N.Z. Fl. 1867, 745.
E. acuta R.Br. var. tenuis Carse in T.N.Z.I. 57, 1926, 89.
Type locality: Tasmanian. Type: BM. Recorded also from Australia and Norfolk Id.
Rhizome woody, 1–2 mm. diam. Culms (1.5)–5–50–(90) cm. × (0.5)–1–2–(2.5) mm. diam., us. crowded in distant tufts, ± erect, terete, striated; lower sheath dark red with an oblique orifice, upper sheath paler, closely appressed to culm, orifice us. truncate or rarely slightly oblique, with dark thickened edge and distinct mucro at back. Spikelet 5–25 × 2–5 mm., cylindrical, acute at tip. Glumes ∞, basal 2 sterile, shorter, broader and paler than rest, upper glumes ovate-lanceolate with hyaline tips. Hypog. bristles (6)–7–(8), some =, some > nut. Stamens 3. Style 3-fid. Nut c. 1.5 × 1 mm., obovoid, biconvex or plano-convex, pale brown, smooth or faintly reticulate; the small persistent style-base triangular, compressed, white or very pale brown.
DIST.: K., N., S., St., Ch.
Damp swampy ground, and on stream and lake margins; sea level to 1,100 m. altitude.
Blake (Proc. roy. Soc. Qd 50, 1939, 117) stated that E. acuta var. platylepis Hook. f. and E. acuta var. tenuis Carse were both typical E. acuta. Hooker considered that Australian plants of E. acuta differed from N.Z. plants in having keeled glumes and he described var. platylepis to cover N.Z. forms, e.g. K, Colenso 603. Carse did not designate any type or type locality for his slender E. acuta var. tenuis; CANTY 2674, Whangarei, H. Carse, 26/11/1898, is one of several specimens in Herb. Carse labelled var. tenuis. The sheet has a note attached "Oberpfarrer Kükenthal agrees with me that this is a small state of E. acuta. 1905".
A very polymorphic sp. Many specimens are intermediate between small wiry plants typical of salt marshes and lake edges, and the larger plants which are more widespread.
E. ambigua Kirk ex Buchan. in T.N.Z.I. 6, 1874, 225, listed by Cheeseman (Man. N.Z. Fl. 1906, 769 and 1925, 218) as a synonym of E. acuta, is a nomen nudum.
