Scirpus pottsii V.J.Cook
Type locality: Waimarino Plateau, near Matatoke Viaduct. Isotype: AK, 24077, V. J. Cook 2469 A. There are two pieces on the sheet, one with dark and one with pale glumes.
Tufts lfy from an ascending rhizome c. 1 mm. diam. Culms (6)–10–25–(40) cm. × c. 0.5 mm. Lvs 1–4, us. < culms, c. 0.5 mm. wide, linear, concavo-convex, sheath membr. with red-purple nerves, orifice truncate. Infl. apparently lateral, of (1)–3–4–(6) spikelets; subtending bract 1–3–(4) cm. long. Spikelets 2.5–4 × 1.5–2 mm., ovoid or elliptical. Glumes c. 1.5 mm. long, lanceolate, acute, dark red, almost black, or pale cream with red markings, keel green, strongly developed, excurrent. Hypog. bristles 0. Stamens 1–(3). Style-branches 2, or 3. Nut c. 1 mm. long, slightly > 0.5 mm., diam., biconvex, rarely trigonous, elliptical, distinctly mucronate, dull yellow to yellow-brown, with minutely reticulate but glossy surface.
DIST.: N. Southwards from c. lat. 37º. S. Not common and not recorded from Marlborough or Westland.
Wet ground on river banks, on forest margins or beside forest tracks, or in seepages; from 200–1,000 m. altitude.
Plants with proliferous spikelets are occ. found.
The sp. resembles S. sulcatus var. distigmatosus in having a plano-convex nut, but differs in having true lvs, fewer spikelets and 2–3 style-branches.
