Flora of New Zealand Series

; Holotype: CHR 247260! P. Wardle Mark's Flat, Clarke River, Westland, Swamp 3100 ft., 23.2.72.

Leaf-sheath to 30 cm, fracturing into short segments, dark brown, interribs with minute and long hairs. Leaf-blade to 1 m, falling with part of sheath; adaxially with dense weft of long hairs extending up leaf-blade or short hairs in rows, papillate or prickle-toothed above. Culm to 1.5 m, internodes sometimes long hairy, sheath glabrous. Lemma to 6 mm; hairs dense on margin, absent or very sparse elsewhere, < sinus; lateral lobes to 6 mm including awn to 2.5 mm.

S.: Nelson and western coast to Cascade Plateau. Scrubland, or tussock grassland; 600-1700 m.

Plants in Nelson Lakes National Park are often of larger stature than at many other sites.

Plants of the west coast lowland populations at Skiffington Swamp (300 m) and Lake Gault (300 m) do not conform to subsp. occulta in that the leaf-sheaths remain entire and leaf-blades are persistent on them. Abundant long hairs are present on the abaxial leaf-blade. For adaxial leaf-blade hairs, glabrous inflorescences, and lemma hairs there is good agreement. CHR 508626a,b P. Wardle 94/129 & R. P. Buxton near Smythe-Wanganui confluence, Westland, bears long hairs on the abaxial leaf-blade surface but has fracturing leaf-sheaths.