Var. minor, Kukenthal, MS.—Smaller and more slender. Leaves narrower. Spike shorter, much more slender.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island: In hilly or mountainous localities from Hokianga southwards, not uncommon. Sea-level to 4000 ft. November–January.
An exceedingly variable plant, forms of which are not separated by any strict line of demarcation from U. purpurata, U. riparia, U. rupestris, and U. filiformis. Its chief characters are the rather broad flat leaves, not very lax narrow-oblong spike, pale-green glumes which are usually as long as the utricles or nearly so, and rather large oblong-lanceolate acuminate utricles, averaging ¼ in. long.
7. U. australis, Pers. Syn. ii. 534.—Culms densely tufted, tall, slender, smooth, 9–20 in. high, leafy at the base. Leaves long, usually considerably overtopping the culms, flat, striate, ⅛–¼ in. broad; margins scabrid. Spike linear-elongate, 3–6 in. long, ⅙–¼ in. broad, dense except sometimes at the base, cylindrical; male portion narrower, variable in length, occupying ⅓–⅙ of the spike; bract long, leafy, usually exceeding the spike. Glumes oblong-lanceolate, acute, 1-nerved, at first pale-green, but brown or chestnut in fruit, upper about equalling the utricle, lower sometimes exceeding it. Stamens 3. Utricle elliptic-oblong, narrowed at both ends, sometimes almost fusiform, triquetrous, faintly nerved; bristle stout, nearly twice the length of the utricle.—A. Cunn. Precur. n. 286; Raoul, Choix, 40; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 287; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 309; C. B. Clarke in Journ. Linn. Soc. xx. 393. U. compacta, A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 118 (not of R. Br.). U. Lindleyana, Kunth, Enum. ii. 526. U. scaberrima, Nees in Linnæa, ix. (1834) 305. U. rigidula, Steud. Cyp. 245. U. alopecurioides, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xv. (1883) 335 U. bracteata, Col. l.c. xvi. (1884) 341 U. polyneura, Col. l.c. xix. (1887) 270.
Var. clavata, Kukenthal, MS.—Spike clavate, often ½ in. broad at the top of the female portion; glumes densely crowded. Other characters as in the type.
Var. ferruginea, C. B. Clarke, MS.—Agreeing with the type in size and habit, but glumes longer and narrower, sometimes twice the length of the utricle, lanceolate or subulate-lanceolate, chestnut-brown with a green usually 3-nerved keel. Utricles with a longer beak.—U. ferruginea, Boott in Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 288, t. 64b; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 309; C. B. Clarke in Journ. Linn. Soc. xx. 394. U. nigra, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvii. (1885) 253. U. variegata, Col. l.c. xx. (1888) 211.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island, Chatham Islands.—The typical form abundant throughout; var. ferruginea not uncommon from Te Aroha southwards. Var. clavata: Near Wellington, Kirk! Otira Gorge, Kirk! T.F.C.; Mount Cook district, T.F.C. Sea-level to 3000 ft. November–February.
Easily recognised by the large size and very long cylindrical dense-flowered spike, I have followed Clarke and Kukenthal in uniting Boott's var. ferruginea with it, there being no differences of importance beyond the very variable one