Flora of New Zealand Series

Type: WELT, 5135 A, D. Petrie, Nov., 1893; isotype at AK.

Rhizomatous, forming matted patches. Rhizomes up to 0.5 mm. diam., long-creeping. Culms distant on the rhizome, up to 7 cm. long, c. 0.2 mm. diam., terete, grooved, smooth; basal sheaths red-brown. Lvs 2–4, = or slightly < culms, c. 0.2 mm. wide, concavo-convex to plano-convex above, margins slightly scabrid towards the subacute tip; lf-sheaths red-brown, striated. Infl. a solitary spike of tightly clustered fls. Female fls 1–2; male fls in a spikelet 3.5–4 mm. long. Lowermost female glume bractiform, upper female glume 3–4 mm. long, acute, red-brown, midrib green, produced to a scabrid mucro c. 0.5 mm. long. Utricles 3–3.5 × 1 mm., subtrigonous, ovoid, nerveless except for two lateral nerves, contracted to a beak 1mm. long with scabrid margins and oblique orifice. Stigmas 3. Rhachilla, enclosed within utricle, 2 mm. long, flattened, margins scabrid. Nut < 2 mm. long, obovoid, trigonous.

DIST.: Known with certainty only from the type locality, Old Man Range, Clutha Valley, 1,200 m. altitude.

CHR 42537, 65090, Rongotea, Ruahine Mts, 1,500 m. V. D. Zotov and A. P. Druce, Jan., 1944, resembles this sp. but the fls are immature.

Hamlin distinguished this sp. from C. acicularis and C. enysii by its rhizomatous habit, slender lvs and culms and few fls.