North and South Islands, Chatham Islands: Brackish-water swamps from Hokianga to Foveaux Strait, but often local. Inland at Roxburgh, Otago, Petrie! November–February.
Not uncommon in temperate Australia and Tasmania, North and South America, and southern Europe.
12. S. lacustris, Linn. Sp. Plant. 48.—Rhizome stout, creeping, with numerous perpendicular rootlets. Stems 2–6 ft. high, sometimes almost as thick as the finger, terete, spongy, glaucous. Leaves wanting, or the uppermost sheath with a very short flat lamina. Inflorescence a terminal simple or compound cymose umbel 2–4 in. across; rays few, stout, irregular; bract shorter than the umbel, continuous with the stem. Spikelets numerous, ovoid or oblong, ⅓ in. long, brownish, many-flowered. Glumes broadly ovate, membranous, concave, notched at the tip with a small point in the notch, margins fringed. Hypogynous bristles 5–6, linear, retrorsely scabrid, usually equalling the nut. Stamens 3. Style-branches 3 or 2. Nut more than half as long as the glume, obovoid, compressed, plano-convex, pale-brown, smooth.—A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 103; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 275; Raoul, Choix, 40; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 269; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 300; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 333.
North and South Islands: Margins of lakes and ponds from the North Cape southwards to the north of Otago and Okarito, common. Sea-level to 1500 ft. November–February.
Generally distributed in all temperate and warm countries, except South America.
13. S. maritimus, Linn. Sp. Plant. 74.—Rhizome woody, creeping, the nodes often dilated into hard tubers. Stems stout, sharply triangular, 1–3 ft. high or more. Leaves from near the base of the stem and often exceeding it, broad, flat, grassy. Inflorescence an irregular terminal umbel of few unequal rays, often contracted into a compact cluster; bracts 3–4, 3–9 in. long, similar to the leaves. Spikelets ½–¾ in. long, sessile or peduncled, ovoid or cylindric, brown, many-flowered. Glumes ovate, membranous, 2-lobed at the tip with a short intermediate awn, usually pubescent towards the tip. Hypogynous bristles 3–6, shorter than the nut, retrorsely scabrid. Stamens 3. Style-branches 3 or 2, long, linear. Nut less than one-half the length of the glume, broadly obovoid, compressed, flat on one side, convex or obtusely angled on the other, smooth and polished, brown when fully ripe.—Raoul, Choix, 40; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 269; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 300.
Var. fluviatilis, Torr. in Ann. Lyceum New York, iii. (1836) 324.—Taller and stouter, 3–6 ft. high. Leaves broader, ½ in. diam. or more; bracts longer. Umbel larger, more often compound; rays 3–9. Spikelets large, pale-brown. Style-branches 3. Nut narrower, oblong-obovoid, trigonous, conspicuously beaked, white or pale-brown, opaque, polished.—Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 335. S. fluviatilis, Asa Gray, Man. Bot. U.S. 500.
