Flora of New Zealand Series

C. paniculata L. var. virgata (Boott) Cheesem. in T.N.Z.I. 16, 1884, 427.

C. appressa R.Br. var. virgata (Boott) Kük. in Pflanzenr. 38, 1909, 179.

Original localities: "Throughout the Islands; common in woods, Banks and Solander, etc."

Rhizomatous; clumps dense. Rhizome 5 mm. diam. Culms 15–90 cm. × c. 1.5 mm., trigonous, grooved, harshly scabrid; basal sheaths shining, grey-brown to dark brown almost black. Lvs much > culms, 50–120 cm. × (1.5)–2–4–(4.5) mm., channelled, light green, harsh and rigid, keel and margins strongly scabrid. Infl. 10–26 cm. long, a narrow panicle with stiff erect branchlets, the lowermost quite distant. Spikes , androgynous, 4–6 mm. long, sessile, grey- or yellow-brown, male fls terminal, lower spikes on each branchlet subtended by a pale membr. bract with a long scabrid awn often > spike. Glume ± = or slightly < utricles, membr., ovate, acute, dull brown, with a prominent pale midrib often scabrid in lowermost glumes. Utricles 2–2.5 × c. 1 mm., plano-convex, ovoid, light grey with distinct brown nerves; tapering to a brown beak c. 0.5 mm. long with a bifid orifice and conspicuously denticulate margins; abruptly contracted to a narrow stipe c. 0.2 mm. long. Stigmas 2. Nut slightly > 1 mm. long, biconvex, ovoid, dark brown.

DIST.: N., S., St., Ch.

Throughout, in swampy ground from sea level to c. 800 m. altitude.

C. virgata resembles C. appressa in the stiff contracted panicle and in the shape of the distinctly nerved utricles but C. virgata has more slender culms, narrower lvs and paler brown, less dense-fld panicles. Plants of C. virgata may become elevated on "trunks" formed by matted rhizomes etc. but these never attain the height reached by C. secta.