Carex lurida Wahlenb.
Sallow Sedge
Dense clumps up to 90 cm tall. Stems stout, erect, 3-angled, smooth or slightly scabrid on angles below inflorescence. Leaves 5-8 mm wide, ± = stems, flat, many small internal septa noticeable when dry; sheaths red to almost black. Inflorescence of large approximate spikes each with long leaf-like bract. Male spike 1, 5-6 cm × 2 mm, peduncle short; glumes narrow with long scabrid awns. Female spikes usually 3, upper sessile, rest shortly pedunculate, 2-4 × ± 1.5 cm, glumes much < utricles except at base of spike, narrow, hyaline, with an extremely long awn. Utricles 6-9 × 2-4 mm, strongly inflated, distinctly nerved, shining, smooth, greenish-brown, beak very narrow, bifid, c. ½ length of utricle. Stigmas 3. Nut trigonous, obovate, style strongly curved above base.
N. Auckland - Hauraki Plains, Te Awamutu, Bay of Plenty. S. Nelson - lower Buller Gorge, near Reefton, Mt Courtney, near Punakaiki. In swamps. (N. America)
First record: Mason 1964: 246.
First collection: Te Puke, Miss Birch, Nov. 1945 (AK 96796).
A coarse plant of swampy areas, locally common in the Hauraki Plains. Its occurrence on a logging track at Punakaiki, and in a road drainage channel in the Buller Gorge, suggest it could be a nuisance in roadside drainage sites.
