base; remainder all female, but often with male flowers below, rarely at the top, shortly peduncled and erect, or the lower on longer peduncles and nodding; bracts long, leafy. Glumes broadly ovate, deeply bifid or almost entire, membranous, dark chestnut-brown with paler margins; midrib stout, produced into a short or rather long stout hispid awn. Utricles about equalling the glumes, ovoid, turgid, biconvex, obscurely nerved, pale- or dark-brown, sometimes almost black; margins often serrate above; beak short, with 2 stout often widely divergent teeth. Styles 3. Nut ovoid, trigonous.—Handb. N.Z. Fl. 316; Boott, Ill. Car. i. t. 176; Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 437. C. longeacuminata, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxi. (1889) 104. C. polyneura, Col. l.c. C. australis, Boeck. Cyp. Berol. n. 298.
Var. Lambertiana, Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 437.—Stouter. Leaves broader, ⅕—⅓ in. Spikelets longer and stouter, 1–2½ in. long. Glumes more deeply bifid.—C. Lambertiana, Boott in Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 284; Ill. Car. i. t. 177; Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 317.
Var. ochrosaccus, Cheesem.—Culms usually overtopped by the leaves. Spikelets 4–9, pale, erect, short-stalked, lower often compound. Glumes with longer awns exceeding the utricles. Utricles pale, rather narrower.—C. ochrosaccus, C. B. Clarke MS. in Herb. Kew.
Var. monticola, Kukenthal, MS.—Smaller, 6–18 in. high. Leaves narrower. Spikelets 3–5, small, ¼–½ in. long, sessile or very shortly peduncled.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island: The typical form and var. Lambertiana abundant throughout. Var. ochrosaccus: Whangarei, Carse! Kaipara, Kirk! vicinity of Auckland, T.F.C. Var. monticola: Not uncommon in turfy swamps in the mountains of both Islands. Sea-level to 3500 ft. October–January.
A most abundant and variable species. It can be distinguished from its allies by the broad flat grassy leaves, usually solitary male spikelets, distant stout dark-coloured female spikelets, which are generally on short peduncles, broad often deeply bifid glumes with a hispid awn of varying length, and broadly ovoid turgid utricles, which are usually obscurely nerved.
41. C. Solandri, Boott in Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 284.—Densely tufted. Culms tall, slender, trigonous, slightly scabrid above, leafy, 1–3 ft. high, often elongating in fruit and becoming prostrate. Leaves long, narrow, keeled, 110–16 in. broad; margins and keel sharply scabrid. Spikelets 5–10, distant, on long slender peduncles, long and narrow, ¾–2 in. long by about ⅕ in. broad, dark-brown; terminal 1–4 male, slender, usually closely placed; remainder all female, but generally with a few male flowers below, nodding, the 2 or 3 lowest often compound, on longer filiform peduncles; bracts long and leafy. Glumes broadly ovate, entire or bifid, membranous, dark or pale chestnut-brown; midrib produced into an awn of variable length. Utricles about equalling the glumes, ovoid, turgid, unequally biconvex or obscurely trigonous, dark red-brown or purplish-black, rarely pale-brown, narrowed into a short sharply bidentate beak; margins smooth or serrate above.
