Flora of New Zealand Series

Lepyrodia traversii F. Muell. Fragm. Phyt. Austr. 8, 1873, 79.

Type locality: Chatham Is. Type: MEL, Travers; isotypes at WELT and WELTU.

Extremely robust, 1–2–(3) m. high. Rhizome 0.6–1 cm. diam., horizontal, covered with tightly appressed, overlapping, pale chestnut, papery scales. Roots thick and matted, 2–5 mm. diam. Culms simple below, 3–10 mm. diam., upper ⅔ much more slender, narrowly branched, branches stiff but flexible, smooth. Lvs reduced to acuminate sheaths, distant, closely appressed to the culm, c. (2)–3–(4) cm. long below, gradually smaller above; margins of sheaths at lowermost nodes split to form a fringe. Plants dioec. Infl. a terminal, cymose panicle, bracts subtending branchlets red-brown, acuminate, with membr. margins, each fl. enclosed by a rigid lanceolate bract. Fls pedicellate or almost sessile, each with 2 hyaline bractlets at the base. Tepals 6, lanceolate, acute, yellow-brown. ♂ with 3 stamens; anthers ⅔ length of tepals; filaments very short; ovary rud. ♀ with 3 slender staminodia, anthers aborted; style densely papillate along its whole length; ovule 1. Fr. c. 1 mm. long, slightly < 1 mm. wide, 2-sided with angles very much thickened, surmounted by a hard, thickened style-base c. 1 mm. long; dehiscing along one edge only. Seed c. 1 × 0.5 mm., oblong, brown, surface minutely reticulate.

DIST.: N. Restricted peaty areas in the Waikato basin and in the Hauraki Plains. Formerly reported from Kaitaia but now apparently extinct there. Ch.

"Only in very wet bogs", Cockayne in T.N.Z.I. 34, 1902, 287.

FL. 10–12. FT. 2–3.

In S. traversii just below the epidermis in the first internode of the stem, there are radial vertical plates of parenchymatous assimilatory tissue, which form a thick but soft, felt-like, brown layer.