Scirpus sulcatus var. distigmatosus
Original localities: Eight are listed, mostly from North Id and including "Norsewood, Colenso". At K, Colenso 4391, from bed of river, Patangata [Hawke's Bay] has been determined as var. distigmatosus by C. B. Clarke; this number is represented also at WELT.
Culms 10–30–(50) cm. long, from slightly < 1 to 1.5 mm. diam., tufted, lfless except for a single, basal, red-purple sheath. Infl. an apparently lateral, solitary head of ∞ densely packed spikelets, often proliferous with 1–3 very slender branchlets each bearing a cluster of spikelets; bract subtending infl. variable in length, often > spikelets. Spikelets 3–5–(7) × 2–3 mm., oblong or elliptical, red-brown. Glumes c. 2 mm. long, ovate to obovate, subacute to obtuse, flattened at tip beside keel, light greenish brown with red markings to almost entirely dark red-purple, with ∞, often distinct, light brown nerves; keel rather narrow, us. prominent only in upper part of glume, occ. slightly excurrent; hyaline margins entire, us. well-marked. Hypog. bristles 0. Stamens us. 1, rarely 2–3 in lower fls of spikelet. Style-branches 2, very rarely 3. Nut c. 1 mm. long, slightly > 0.5 mm. diam., < glume, plano-convex or biconvex, obovoid, minutely apiculate with a dark tip, cream to light grey-brown, surface shining but minutely reticulate.
DIST.: N. Throughout. S. Almost throughout, but rare in Canterbury and not found in Otago. St., Ch.
Swampy ground from sea level to 600 m. altitude.
Similar to S. prolifer and to large forms of S. inundatus in having no true lvs at all, but only sheathing bracts. Distinguished by its us. reddish glumes, 2 style-branches, and plano-convex nuts.
