but sometimes dwarfed to 1 or 2 in., at other times attaining 18 in. Leaves shorter or longer than the culms, narrow, flat, grassy, 120–112 broad. Spikelets 3–5, rarely more or fewer, sessile or the lowest very shortly stalked, erect, close together or a little remote, ¼–¾ in. long; terminal one (and sometimes a smaller one near its base) wholly male, linear or linear-oblong; the rest female, often with a few male flowers at the top, oblong, cylindric; bracts long and leafy, the lowest usually exceeding the inflorescence. Glumes oblong or obovate-oblong, obtuse or very shortly mucronate, shorter than the utricle, dark-purple or purplish-black, usually with a narrow pale midrib and margins. Utricle narrow-ovate to orbicular-ovate, much compressed, conspicuously nerved almost to the apex, green spotted with brownish-red when ripe, upper portion minutely granular-papillose; beak very short, almost wanting, entire or minutely 2-toothed. Styles 2. Nut broadly ovate, plano-convex.—Hook. f. Fl. Tasm. ii. 99, t. 151a; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 313. C. vulgaris var. Gaudichaudiana, Boott, Ill. Gar. iv. 169, t. 567; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 442; Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 429. C. cæspitosa, R. Br. Prodr. 242 (not of Good.).
North and South Islands: Moist places in mountain districts from the Upper Waikato southwards, rarer in the lowlands. Sea-level to 4500 ft. November–February.
Also in Australia and Tasmania, and very closely allied to the almost cosmopolitan C. vulgaris, Fries, differing chiefly in the more compressed and conspicuously nerved utricles.
19. C. sulbdola, Boott in Trans. Linn. Soc. xx. (1846) 142.—Rhizome creeping, stoloniferous. Culms slender, trigonous, slightly scabrid above, 1–2 ft. high. Leaves usually exceeding the culms, pale-green, soft, grassy, 112–18 broad; margins scabrid above. Spikelets 4–8, erect, 1–3 in. long; terminal 1–3 male, usually approximate, sessile, very slender, cylindric; the remainder female, usually with a few male flowers at the top, the upper sometimes geminate, sessile or shortly stalked, the lower solitary, often remote, on longer peduncles; bracts very long and leafy, far exceeding the inflorescence. Glumes shorter and narrower than the utricles, oblong, obtuse, emarginate, with an awn of variable length from the centre of the emargination, dark red-brown or purplish-brown usually with a green stripe down the centre. Utricle ovate, much compressed, conspicuously nerved, green or brownish-green, narrowed into a very short entire or minutely 2-toothed beak. Styles 2. Nut broadly ovate, plano-convex.—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 282; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 314; Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi (1884) 430.
North Island: Abundant in swamps from the North Cape southwards. Sea-level to 1500 ft. November–January.
