Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: Mt Arthur Plateau, 4,000 ft. Lectotype: AK, 2485, T. F. Cheeseman, Jan., 1886; isotypes at WELT and CHR.

Culms 8–21 cm. long, upper part not enclosed by lf-sheaths. Lvs 9–35 cm. × 0.5–1.5 mm., involute or flattened. Infl. 1–4 cm. × c. 5 mm., spikes rather distant, especially the lower ones, the lowest 1–2 spikes each occ. subtended by a lf-like bract.

DIST.: S. Known only from the original localities, Mt Arthur Plateau, Nelson at 1,200 m. altitude and Mt St Bathans, Otago, at 900 m. altitude.

On the St Bathans Range A. F. Mark recently collected  var. kirkii (OTA 8773) which was common in high-altitude snow-tussock grassland, but Petrie's gathering of var. elatior was from a much lower altitude.

C. kirkii var membranacea Kük. in Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. 1906, 811, is known only from one gathering from Mt Arthur Plateau, Nelson, 4,000 ft, T. F. Cheeseman, Jan., 1886, specimens at AK and WELT. It is intermediate in size between  var. kirkii and  var. elatior and differs from them both in having membr. utricles, c. 5 mm. long, with a beak c. 2.5 mm. long. The glumes in these specimens are < utricles.

Although C. kirkii somewhat resembles C. resectans, the culms in C. kirkii are produced in small clusters on the short rhizomes rather than singly and evenly along a long-creeping rhizome as in C. resectans. The male fls are at the top of the spike in C. kirkii but at the base in C. resectans.