Uncinia drucei Hamlin
U. drucei var. pauciflora Hamlin in Bull. Dom. Mus., Wellington 19, 1959, 59.
Type locality: "Hikurangi Range, Ruahine Mountains, among stones in small gully, c. 1,620 m." Type: WELT, 2890, Hamlin 532, 21/2/1956.
Stoloniferous, stolons c. 0.5 mm. diam. Culms 5–20 cm. × (0.3)–0.5-1 mm., glab.; basal bracts light brown or straw-coloured. Lvs 5–6–(8) per culm, < culms, 1–1.5 mm. wide, bright green, soft, the abaxial surface with 3–5 very pale green, raised veins, margins scabrid and tapering towards the narrow, triangular tip. Spikes 0.5–2 cm. × 3–4 mm., up to 1 cm. diam. at maturity, oblong, female fls 7–18, densely crowded, internodes 0.5–1.5 mm. long. Glumes = or > utricles, deciduous, subacute, membr., pale brown with broad green midrib. Utricles 4–5 × c. 1 mm., trigonous, elliptic-lanceolate, dark brown, shining, smooth except for a prominent lateral nerve, widely spreading when ripe, slightly contracted below to a stipe c. 1 mm. long and above to a beak c. 1.5 mm. long.
DIST.: N. Hikurangi Range, and Mt Egmont. S. Nelson, Arnst Basin, St Arnaud Range; Otago, Rock and Pillar Range and near Mt Aspiring. St.
Among rocks in alpine herbfield, 1,200–1,620 m. altitude.
FL. 9–10. FT. 10–2.
U. drucei var. pauciflora was based on plants from Mt Egmont and the type is WELT, 2712, Manganui track below Warwick Castle, Mt Egmont, among large boulders, c. 1,350 m., Hamlin 452, 24/2/1955. Var. pauciflora was described as having more slender and taller culms than those of var. drucei and only 7–8 female fls, as compared with the 14–18 fls of var. drucei. Specimens from Mt Egmont (as well as a single specimen seen from Nelson) are slightly taller, slightly more slender (culms < 0.5 mm. diam.) and have shorter spikes than the type specimen of U. drucei from the Ruahines and matching specimens from Otago. However, one specimen from Mt Egmont (CHR 86737, A. P. Druce, Feb., 1960) resembled var. drucei in having up to 14 fls per spike, and although the culms were c. 0.5 mm. diam. when first collected, a portion of the plant in cultivation produced shorter culms, > 0.5 mm. diam., thus resembling var. drucei still more.
Hamlin (1959, p. 59) notes that U. drucei "differs from U. divaricata in being stoloniferous with numerous, narrow, soft leaves, and having short oblong spikes with small dark-brown shining utricles."
