North Island: Auckland—Swamps at Whangarei and between the Manukau Harbour and the Waikato River, H. Carse! Papatoetoe, Kirk! Taranaki—Ngaire Swamp, T.F.C. January–March.
This seems to have been confounded with S. pauciflorus, but differs from that species in the shorter leaves, longer panicle with numerous spikelets, in the absence of bristles, and in the nut. It is probably common in lowland swamps.
4. S. pauciflorus, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 298.—Rhizome short, stout, branched at the tip. Stems densely tufted, very slender, deeply grooved, 1–3 ft. high, green or purplish-red. Leaves reduced to 2–4 dark chestnut-brown or almost black sheaths at the base of the stem, the uppermost of which is produced into an erect almost filiform lamina 1–3 in. long; the mouths of the sheaths oblique, glabrous. Panicle small, ¾–2 in. long, of 2–8 spikelets; bracts usually 2, overtopping the panicle. Spikelets lanceolate, compressed, ¼ in. long, 2–4-flowered, varying in colour from whitish to dark chestnut-brown. Glumes 4–6, distichous, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, keeled, nerveless except the midrib; margins glabrous; the 3 outer slightly smaller, empty. Hypogynous bristles 6, filiform, almost equalling the style. Stamens 3. Style-branches 3. Nut elliptic-obiong, trigonous with the angles thickened, smooth, polished, pale-brown.—Chætospora pauciflora, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 273.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island: An abundant mountain-plant from Lake Taupo southwards. 1500–5000 ft. December–March.
This hardly differs from the Chilian Chætospora antarctica, Hook, f., except in the much shorter leaves.
5. S. axillaris, Poir. Encycl. Suppl. ii. 251.—Stems very slender, pale-green, flaccid, leafy, branched, creeping or diffusely spreading, often intricate, 2–6 in. long or more. Leaves alternate, spreading, ½–1 in. long, very narrow-linear, obtuse, flat or nearly so, flaccid. Spikelets 1–3 together in the axils of the leaves, sessile or shortly peduncled, about 110 in. long, compressed, pale-brown, 1–2-flowered. Glumes distichous, lanceolate, subacute, keeled; the 2 or 3 outer empty and smaller. Hypogynous bristles 6, rarely fewer, longer than the nut. Stamens 3. Style-branches 3. Nut very small, elliptic-obovoid, obtusely trigonous, quite smooth, white or greyish-white.—Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 298; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 375. Chætospora axillaris, R. Br. Prodr. 233; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 274, t. 62a; Fl. Tasm. ii. 82. Scirpus foliatus, Hook. f. in Lond. Journ. Bot. iii. 1844, 414.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island, Chatham Islands: From the North Cape southwards, abundant in the North Island, less plentiful in the South Island. Sea-level to 2500 ft. November–March.
Easily recognised by the slender creeping or diffuse habit, leafy stems, spikelets in twos or threes in the axils of the leaves, and small white nut. Also common in extratropical Australia and Tasmania.
