.jpg)
Manual of the New Zealand Flora.
2. Leptocarpus, R. Br
2. Leptocarpus, R. Br.
Stems simple or branched, terete, erect from a stout creeping scaly rhizome. Leaves reduced to persistent sheathing scales. Flowers diœcious, the spikelets with imbricate glumes with or without bracteoles, the male and female inflorescences alike or dissimilar, sometimes both sexes have the spikelets arranged in panicles, sometimes the male spikelets are pedicelled and paniculate, and the females sessile and fascicled or spicate. Male flowers: Perianth - segments 6. Stamens 3; filaments filiform; anthers 1-celled. Female flowers: Perianth as in the males. Staminodia 3 or none. Ovary 1-celled, triquetrous; styles 3, filiform; ovule solitary, pendulous. Fruit narrow-ovoid, triquetrous, indehisceni or splitting down the angles.
page 761Species about 21, one in New Zealand, one in Chili, another in Cochin-China, 7 in South Africa, the remainder confined to Australia.
| 1. | L. simplex, A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 142 (not of R. Br.).—Rhizome stout, creeping, clothed with chestnut-brown scales. Stems numerous, densely crowded, simple, slender, terete, rush-like, 1–5 ft. high. Sheaths closely appressed, blackish-brown, distant, 1½–4 in. apart. Male inflorescence panicled; panicles variable in size, sometimes long and slender, at other times short and contracted, alternate on the upper part of the stem. Spikelets numerous, sessile or pedicelled, red-brown, ¼–½ in. long, many-flowered. Glumes imbricate, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, much longer than the flowers. Perianth-segments 4–6, lanceolate, the 3 inner rather smaller. Female inflorescence compacted into rounded or oblong often lobed or interrupted fascicles or glome-rules, alternate along the stem. Glumes broadly ovate, acuminate. Perianth rather longer than in the males; segments 6, the 3 outer keeled, acuminate; the 3 inner flat, oblong, obtuse or mucronate. Fruit narrow-ovoid, triquetrous.—A. Cunn. Precur. n. 291; Raoul, Choix, 40; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 265, t. 61; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 294. Restio simplex, Murr. Syst. Veg. v. 882; Forst. Prodr. n. 367.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island, Chatham Islands: Salt marshes and sandy shores, abundant. Also inland near hot springs at Roto-rua and at Tokaanu (Lake Taupo). Oioi. September–December. |