NEW SOUTH WALES FLORA ONLINE

Printable Page

Synonyms: Schoenus sp. Mt Maroon (VL Lonergan 7) APNI*

Description: Short-rhizomatous perennial, forming tussocks. Culms erect to weeping, terete, striate, not nodeless, 60–120 cm high, 0.6–0.9 mm in diameter.

Leaves with very reduced obtuse blade; sheaths reddish to dark brown, with apex truncate, pilose; ligule present as narrow line.

Inflorescence erect or drooping, narrow, 3–7 cm long, with spikelets loosely clustered at (2-)3–4(-5) nodes; lowest involucral bract to 0.6 cm long. Spikelets narrow-ovate, acute, falcate, 2–3-flowered, 7.5–9 mm long. Glumes 5–7, the lowest 3–4 empty, ovate, acute, dark brown, dull or glistening, with glabrous or pilose margins; fertile glumes 5.5–7 mm long. Bristles 2–4, not plumose, shorter than fruit. Stamens 3; anthers 2–3.8 mm long.

Nut trigonous, ellipsoid or obovoid, 1.2–1.6 mm long, 0.6–0.8 mm diam., scarcely 3-ribbed, transversely wrinkled, glabrous, shining, pale yellow-brown to pale red-brown.

Herbarium Sheet

Type Specimen

Distribution and occurrence: Known from only one mountain nature reserve in NE NSW; also on mountains in Mt Barney National Park in Queensland.

On acid-volcanic substrate, on cliffs tops and faces at (400-)800-1300 m altitude.
NSW subdivisions: NC
Other Australian states: Qld

AVH map***

Closely related to S. melanostachys, differing in being more slender (culms 0.6-0.9 mm diam.); inflorescences shorter (3-7 cm long), less robust, usually with fewer nodes and far fewer than 25 spikelets; culm costal zones (longitudinal ribs) prominently raised and narrower than intercostal zones (versus not raised and broader in S. melanostachys).