Lepidosperma neesii Kunth APNI*
Description: Small tufted perennial with long rhizome. Culms rigid, erect, terete but shallowly to deeply 1-grooved (rarely 2-grooved), glabrous, smooth, 20–65(-80) cm high, 0.8–2.0 mm diam.
Leaves terete with 1 side flattened or grooved, or obscurely 4-angled, shorter than culms, 0.7–1.3 mm diam.; sheath straw-coloured to reddish above, dark brown at base, not viscid, dull.
Inflorescence oblong to ovate in outline, erect, dense, 2–7(-9) cm long, 1–1.5 cm diam.; involucral bract shorter than inflorescence. Spikelets few, densely clustered, c. 6 mm long. Glumes 5 or 6, long-acute, often mucronate, puberulous to glabrous, red- to grey-brown; 1–3 lowest empty, somewhat shorter than fertile glumes; fertile 4.5–5.0 mm long. Scales 5 or 6, an eighth to a quarter the length of nut, whitish. Anthers 2.3–3.3 mm long, excluding appendage 0.5–1.1 mm long. 2.3–3.3 mm long, excluding appendage 0.5–1.1 mm long. 2.3–3.3 mm long, excluding appendage 0.5–1.1 mm long. 2.3–3.3 mm long, excluding appendage 0.5–1.1 mm long. 2.3–3.3 mm long, excluding appendage 0.5–1.1 mm long.
Nut narrow-ellipsoid, 2.0–2.8 mm long, 1.3–1.6 mm diam., whitish to pale red-brown, wrinkled to smooth, shining.
Flowering: Spring–summer.
Distribution and occurrence: Grows in heath and woodland on sandy soils in seasonally damp situations; south from Evans Head, extending inland to the Blue Mtns.
NSW subdivisions: NC, CC, SC, CT
Other Australian states: Vic.
Text by K. L. Wilson Taxon concept: Flora of NSW 4 (1993)
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