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Synonyms: Scirpus inundatus var. floribundus Benth. APNI*

Description: Small, tufted annual or ?perennial.

Culms filiform, 3–10 cm high.

Leaves with blade to 2 cm long. Spikelets 2–7 per inflorescence, rarely a solitary spikelet, 3.5–6 mm long; involucral bract 1–6 cm long (usually at least half as long as culm, often as long as culm). Glumes obtuse, mucronulate, sides not or indistinctly irregularly several-nerved, 1.2–2 mm long, whitish to straw-coloured. Stamen 1. Style 3-fid.

Nut ± equally trigonous, angles well-defined, ellipsoid to broad-ellipsoid, about half as long as glume, 0.6–0.8 mm long, 0.5–0.7 mm diam., minutely punctulate, glistening, straw-coloured.

Herbarium Sheet

Herbarium Sheet

Flowering: summer.

Distribution and occurrence: Widespread but scattered in moist open situations; south from Armidale area.
NSW subdivisions: CC, NT, CT, ST, CWS, SWS
Other Australian states: Vic. Tas.

AVH map***

Apparently intermediate in characters between I. inundata and I. montivaga (e.g. this has 1 stamen as in I. inundata but the spikelets look similar to those of I. montivaga). These species need further study. I. montivaga differs in having a larger nut (to c. 1.3 mm long, about two-thirds as long as glume), unequally trigonous with the third angle often not clearly defined, darker yellow to grey-brown. It only occurs at higher altitudes. The involucral bracts in I. inundata are always much shorter than the culms (to 1.5 cm long), unlike both I. montivaga and this species. There is a dwarfed form with slightly smaller nut (c. 0.7 mm long) and glumes (c. 1.2 mm long) from the Brindabella Ra. to the Kosciusko area, behaving as a pioneer annual in solifluction trenches in grassland.