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Manual of the New Zealand Flora.
10. Lepidosperma, Labill
10. Lepidosperma, Labill.
Perennial herbs. Stems stout, leafy at the base, often flat or compressed. Leaves similar to the stems, sheathing at the base. Inflorescence a terminal panicle, either long and much branched, or page 790short and spike-like. Spikelets numerous, 2–4-flowered, the uppermost flower perfect and fruit-bearing, the remainder sterile. Glumes 5–10, subdistichous, imbricate; outer 1–6 empty. Hypogynous bristles 6, short, ovate or lanceolate with a setiform tip. Stamens 3. Style-branches 3. Nut ovoid or oblong, obtusely trigonous; tip obtuse, indurated, smooth.
Species 36. One of them is endemic in South China and Malacca, the remaining 35 are confined to Australia, with the exception of two which are found in New Zealand as well.
| Stems flat and thin. Panicle narrow, lax, 4–12 in. long | 1. L. laterale. |
| Stems slender, terete, Spike simple, 1–3 in. long | 2. L. filiforme. |
| 1. |
L. laterale, R. Br. Prodr. 234.—Stems densely tufted, flat or very slightly convex, with sharp almost cutting edges, smooth, firm, 2–4 ft. high, ⅕–¼ in. broad. Leaves 3–5, similar to the stems but shorter, equitant at the base. Panicle long and narrow, 4–12 in. long; branches not very closely placed, elongated, erect, simple or again branched, lowest bract with an erect lamina 1½–4 in. long, upper bracts short. Spikelets sessile, red-brown, ⅕ in. long, usually with 1 perfect flower and 1 sterile one below it. Glumes ovate, acuminate or almost awned, keeled, minutely puberulous on the back, the 3 outer empty. Hypogynous bristles 6, connate at the base, small, short, tipped with delicate fragile setæ which are sometimes half as long as the nut. Stamens 3. Style-branches 3. Nut ovoid-oblong, obtusely trigonous, smooth when fully mature, tip tumid.—Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 393. L. concavum, Hook. f. Fl. Tasm. ii. 91, t. 146b; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 307 (not of R. Br.). L. longitudinalis, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 279 (not of Labill.). North Island: Auckland—Clay hills from the North Cape to the Upper Waikato, not uncommon. Sea-level to 1500 ft. "January–February. Also in eastern Australia and Tasmania. |
| 2. |
L. filiforme, Labill. Pl. Nov. Holl. i. 17, t. 15.—Rhizome short, stout, woody, creeping. Stems numerous, densely tufted, slender but rigid, erect, terete, rush-like, 1–3 ft. high. Leaves reduced to a rather long and closely appressed sheath, terminating in a short and almost filiform erect lamina. Spike simple, terminal, 1–3 in. long; rhachis slender, straight or scarcely flexuose; sheathing bracts narrow. Spikelets 1 to each bract, narrow-linear, terete or nearly so, ⅓ in. long, 2-flowered, the upper flower perfect, the lower sterile. Glumes 4–5, narrow-lanceolate, acute, the 2 or 3 outer ones shorter and broader, empty. Stamens 3. Nut oblong, obtuse or minutely apiculate, obtusely trigonous with a thickened line down the angles. Hypogynous scales at the base of the nut minute, whitish, subulate-lanceolate, acute, closely appressed.—Hook. f. Fl. Tasm. ii. 93 (in part); F. Muell. Fragm. ix. 27.; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 399. page 791North Island: Auckland—Clay hills between Mongonui and Kaitaia, H. Carse! August–September. I am indebted to Mr. C. B. Clarke for identifying this with the Australian L. filiforme. So far, it has only been gathered in New Zealand by Mr. Carse, but it will probably prove to be not uncommon north of Auckland. In Australia it has been recorded from Victoria and Tasmania. |