Flora of New Zealand Series

Original localities: "Tarndale?, Sinclair; Lake Tennyson, alt. 4,400 ft., Travers." Type: K, Sinclair (fide Hamlin).

Shortly rhizomatous, turf-forming, rhizome 1–2 mm. diam. Culms 7–30 cm. × 0.5–1 mm., erect, us. glab., but occ. faintly scabrid just below infl.; basal bracts dull grey-brown. Lvs 6–9 per culm, < or occ. almost = culms, 1.5–3 mm. wide, rather stiff. Spikes 1–2 cm. × 4–7 mm., oblong to obovate, ebracteate, male fls ± inconspicuous, female fls c. 10–15 close-set, internodes ± equal. Glumes = utricles, persistent, ovate, obtuse or subacute, coriac., straw-coloured or light greyish brown with a broad, pale green midrib, the central nerves thickened and conspicuous. Utricles 4.5–6 × 1.5–2 mm., plano-convex, elliptical, coriac., grey-brown to dark brown, nerved below and with a stronger lateral nerve, hispid on margins and both surfaces of upper half, beak and stipe hardly narrowed, c. 0.5 mm. long.

DIST.: S.

On the eastern side in tussock grassland and boggy ground from 400–1,400 m. altitude. Not common.

A Travers specimen from Lake Tennyson is also at K.