North and South Islands: Dry hills from the North Cape to Banks Peninsula, but not common to the south of Cook Strait. Sea-level to 2000 ft.
Also in the Sandwich Islands.
12. OREOBOLUS, R. Br.
Dwarf perennial herbs, forming dense cushion-shaped masses in alpme bogs. Stems branched, very closely compacted, leafy throughout. Leaves numerous, close-set, distichous and equitant, more rarely irregularly imbricate all round. Peduncle axillary, short at first but lengthening after the flowers expand, strict, compressed, bearing a terminal spikelet with or without 1 or 2 lateral ones. Spikelets minute, narrow, 1-flowered; flower hermapnrodite. Glumes 3 or rarely 4, the outer the largest, the second and third subequal, the fourth when present small, not much longer than the nut. Hypogynous scales (perianth-segments) 6, in 2 series, subequal, narrow, rigid, erect. Stamens 3. Style slender, continuous with the ovary; branches 3. Nut obovoid, obtuse with a depressed star-like mark at the apex, smooth.
In addition to the 2 species described below, one of which extends to Victoria and Tasmania, there is also one in Andine and antarctic America, and another in the Sandwich Islands.
| Leaves obscurely distichous. Peduncle shorter than the leaves; spikelets usually 2, rarely 1 or 3 | 1. O. pumilio. |
| Leaves conspicuously distichous. Peduncle often equalling or exceeding the leaves in fruit; spikelets usually 1 | 1a. O. pumilio var. pectinatus. |
| Leaves obscurely distichous, very narrow, strict. Peduncle shorter than the leaves; spikelets usually 1 | 2. O. strictus. |
1. O. pumilio, R. Br. Prodr. 236.—Stems much branched, short, ½–2 in. high, forming broad and dense cushion-shaped masses. Leaves obscurely distichous, ½–1½ in. long, erect or incurved, rarely spreading, narrow-linear, narrowed towards the obtuse tip, concave or almost flat in front, veinless or indistinctly 3-nerved; margins minutely serrulate; sheaths equitant, membranous, 3-nerved. Peduncles stout, rigid, mostly shorter than the leaves; spikelets usually 2, rarely 3 or 1. Glumes 3–4; the outer one the largest, leaf-like, 3-nerved; the second and third about equal; the fourth, when present, minute, not much exceeding the nut. Hypogynous scales narrow-lanceolate, acute, serrulate. Stamens 3. Style-branches 3. Nut small, obovoid. obtuse, whitish or brownish.—Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 308; Fl. Tasm. ii. 94; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 346.
South Island: Nelson—Mount Rochfort and other mountains near Westpost, Townson! Westland—Arthur's Pass, T.F.C.; Kelly's Hill, Petrie! Worsley's Pass, Cockayne! Otago—Mountains above Lake Harris, Kirk! 2000–4000 ft.
