The best marks of this variable plant are the comparatively lax habit, very slender culms which often elongate in fruit and become prostrate, usually aggregated spikelets, and plano-convex utricles with nerved faces and serrate margins.
25. C. Wakatipu, Petrie in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xiv. (1882) 363.—Laxly tufted, often spreading at the base. Culms short, rather stout, trigonous, smooth, very variable in size, usually 4–8 in. high, but sometimes elongated to 12 or 14 in., and alpine specimens are often dwarfed to 1–2 in. Leaves always much longer than the culms, frequently twice the length, broad, flat, grooved, ⅛–⅕ in. diam.; margins slightly scabrid. Spikelets 3–6, closely packed, pale- or dark-brown; terminal one (rarely two) male, slender; remainder all female, sometimes with a few male flowers below or rarely above, sessile or the lowest shortly pedunculate, ⅓–1 in. long; bracts very long and leafy, far overtopping the spikelets. Glumes broadly ovate, thin and membranous, bifid, pale-chestnut, sometimes dark-brown; midrib stout, ending in a short awn. Utricle broadly elliptic-ovoid, unequally biconvex, strongly 7–11-nerved, pale-brown to dark-brown; margins usually smooth; beak short, 2-toothed. Styles 2. Nut broadly oblong, lenticular.—Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 434.
South Island: Not uncommon in alpine and subalpine localities throughout. 2500–5500 ft. December–February.
Distinguished from C. testacea by the smaller size and more robust habit, broader leaves always much exceeding the culms, closely aggregated spikelets, and more turgid strongly nerved utricles.
26. C. devia, Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xv. (1883) 301.—Culms laxly tufted, smooth or nearly so, leafy at the base, 6–18 in. high. Leaves shorter than the culms, spreading, rigid and coriaceous, flat or involute, strongly grooved, 110–16 in. diam.; margins scabrid. Spikelets 2–4, approximate or the lowest alone remote, dark-brown; terminal one the largest, male, rarely with a few female flowers at the base, rather stout, sometimes almost clavate,
¾–1½ in. long; remainder all female, erect, oblong, ½–1 in. long, sessile or the lowest very shortly pedunculate; lowest bract long and leafy, the rest small. Glumes dark-brown with a pale centre, ovate, acute, emarginate or shortly bifid, the midrib produced into a hispid awn of varying length. Utricle equalling the glumes or rather longer than them, elliptic-ovoid, unequally biconvex or almost plano-convex, strongly nerved on both faces, purplish-black; margins entire; beak short, bifid. Styles 2. Nut broadly obovoid-oblong, compressed.—Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 433.
South Island: Nelson—Mount Arthur Plateau, St. Arnaud Mountains, Raglan Range, T.F.C; Dun Mountain, H. H. Travers! D'Urville Island, H. B. Kirk! 1000–3000 ft. December–January.
Mr. C. B. Clarke considers this to be a variety of C. lucida, to which it approaches very closely in the glumes and utricle. But the habit is altogether