Flora of New Zealand Series

Perennial, very dense coarse tufts (15) -25-35 cm high; roots thick, spreading. Stems stout, stiffly erect. Leaves many, usually all basal, c. ½ length of stems, wiry, very stiff, channelled, abruptly reflexed from just above very wide sheath. Inflorescence 2-8-(12) cm long, strict, with few unequal branches. Flowers in clusters of 2-3-(6) at ends of branches. Tepals 5-6 mm long, ± equal, dark chestnut-brown even in young flowers, tips subulate to acute. Stamens 6, Capsule c. 5 mm long, slightly < tepals, obovate, very shortly mucronate, yellow-brown to dark chestnut-brown.

N. Wellington - Upper Waingawa River (Wairarapa). S. Nelson - Buller, Reefton, Tarndale; Westland - Fletcher Creek, upper Grey Valley; Canterbury - Burkes pass; Otago - Mt Cargill (near Dunedin). St. Swampy or acid ground. (Europe, N. Africa, Iceland and Greenland)

First record: Healy 1970: 157.

First collection: "Lees Knobs, 1800 ft, middle of Stewart Island, J. W. Murdoch, Feb.9, 1910" (K).

A plant of acid boggy sites, unlikely to be confused with any other, the tough, wiry, rigid leaves abruptly reflexed above the broad sheathing bases, and obovate, mucronate, dark chestnut-brown capsules, are distinctive.