Flora of New Zealand Series

C. cryptocarpa Cheesem. in T.N.Z.I. 16, 1884, 412 non Mey. in Mem. Acad. Sci. St. Peterbourg 1, 1831, 226, t. 14.

Type locality: Lake Tekapo, Canterbury, 2,500 ft. Type: AK, 2697, T. F. Cheeseman, Jan. 1883; isotype at K.

Densely tufted; tufts very small, bright green or yellow-green. Culms 2–7 cm. long, enclosed by light to dark brown lf-sheaths almost to the top. Lvs much > culms, 3–9 cm. × 0.5–1 mm., concavo-convex, almost flat, bright green or yellow-green, rigid, coriac., linear, gradually tapering above, margins scabrid, tips subacute, incurved when dry; sheaths twice as broad as lamina, pale brown with membr. edges. Infl. a close-packed head of 3–5 spikes; terminal spike male; lower spikes female, 4–8 mm. long, ovoid or oblong-ovoid, greenish-brown, sessile or the lowest very shortly pedunculate; spikes subtended by lf-like bracts > infl. Glumes < or ± = utricles, ovate or almost orbicular, acute or with a longer scabrid awn, nerved, membr., red-brown with a pale centre and margin, or almost entirely pale straw-coloured. Utricles 2.5–3 × c. 1.5 mm., plano-convex to subtrigonous, broadly ovoid, light brown, turgid at the back, very faintly nerved, spreading, margins thickened, faintly serrate above; beak c. 0.5 mm. long, scabrid, orifice acutely cleft, scabrid; stipe absent, though utricle narrows towards the base. Stigmas 3. Nut c. 2 mm. long, trigonous, grey-brown.

DIST.: S. Canterbury southwards from lat. 43º, common in the Mackenzie Basin, local elsewhere; Otago at Earnscleugh.

On gravelly river terraces, lake margins or boggy ground from 600 to 1,500 m. altitude.