Carex iynx Nelmes
Robust dense tussocks to 90 cm high; tillers intravaginal. Stems ± terete, slender, smooth, drooping. Leaves 3-6 mm wide, ± = stems, shallowly channelled, light green; sheaths shining dark brown. Inflorescence a drooping panicle with long-peduncled spikes in fascicles of 1-5 from each node; bracts leaf-like, conspicuous but < inflorescence. Male spikes 1-3-(4), 2-7 cm × 1.5-2 mm, usually wholly male but occasionally with a few female flowers interspersed; glumes narrow-oblong. obtuse, occasionally short-awned. Female spikes 2.5-3-(6) cm × 4-7 mm, on extremely long, drooping, filiform peduncles, dense-flowered, occasionally with male flowers at top; glumes ± = utricles, 5.5-6.5 mm long, hyaline, light brown. Utricles ± 6 × 2 mm, ± nerved, margins scabrid in upper half, fusiform, beak 1-1.5 mm long, bifid, stip ± 0.5 mm long. Stigmas 3. Nut trigonous, obovoid.
N. Wellington - Levin, Manakau, Porirua, Tawa. In hill pastures. (Australia; Tasmania, Victoria)
First record: Molloy and Edgar 1973: 40.
First collections: "Porirua, north of Wellington, hill pastures", S.N. Dawes, 3.3.1961 (CHR 123134); "Tawa, Wellington Province, hill country - western hills", S. N. Dawes, 3.3.1961 (CHR 123185). Two immature specimens which may be C. iynx were collected earlier from Manakau by J. B. Harman (CHR 63916 - 29.9.1948; CHR 84099 - 9.11.1948).
C. iynx is likely to be confused with C. longebrachiata but differs in the less dense, more flattened tussocks, softer leaves, V-shaped (not Y-shaped) in section, and male spikes usually 3 (not 1); see B. P. J. Molloy and E. Edgar N.Z.J. Agric. 126, 1973, 40-43.
C. iynx is equally as troublesome as C. longebrachiata in hill country grassland and may be more widespread than currently known because of confusion with that sp. In Australia C. iynx occurs inland in New South Wales and in western Victoria, and was not recognised as a distinct entity until 1944. N. T. Burbidge and M. Gray (Fl. A.C.T. 1970, 74) note "This species is closely allied to the coastal C. longebrachiata. . . and might best be regarded as a subspecies of it."C. iynx was almost certainly introduced to N.Z. as an impurity in paspalum seed; its restricted distribution here could indicate that most imported paspalum seed originates from coastal rather than inland localities in New South Wales.
