Flora of New Zealand Series

Fig. 17

Slender close-packed clumps; rhizome short. Stems 45-120 cm × (1) -1.5-2.5 mm, hard, erect, bluish-green, ridged, dull, pith irregularly interrupted. Basal sheaths closely appressed, loose, dark red-purple, ± black below. Inflorescence 5-10 cm long with up to 5 very slender erect branches, 1-2 longer than rest and branched again. Flowers small, clustered at branchlet tips. Tepals 1.5-2 mm long, ± equal, acute. Stamens 3- (4). Capsule 2-2.5 mm long, usually noticeably > tepals, ovoid, tapered to subacute top, reddish-brown.

N. Auckland - near Auckland City, Waikato, Bay of Plenty at Hawai. S. Canterbury - Lincoln; Otago - south of Dunedin. Damp waste land. (Australia)

First record: Edgar 1964: 186

First collection: "Near St John' s Lake, Auckland", H. Carse 481/8, 28.1.1925 (CHR 291478).

The very scattered distribution indicates that this sp. is introduced although it was first published as indigenous to N.Z. (Type:CHR 145441, Lincoln, opposite school, in damp hollow near golf course, E. Edgar, 13.1.1964) but at that time it was not realised that J. amabilis matched some undescribed Australian plants.