Carex pendula Huds.

Large coarse tufts. Stems to 2.5 m high, 3-angled, smooth. Leaves 15–20 mm wide, < stems, rigid, ± flat; sheaths red-brown. Inflorescence of large, long, pendulous spikes. Male spike 1, 10–15 cm × 3–4 mm; glumes light brown, very narrow, ± 5 mm long. Female spikes 4–5, distant, to 12 cm × 5 mm, very dense-flowered; uppermost spikes sessile, peduncles of lower spikes enclosed by sheaths of long, leaf-like bracts; glumes ± = utricles, ovate, acute to mucronate, reddish-brown. Utricles ± 3 × 1.5 mm, ovoid-elliptical, nerved, glabrous, membranous, beak very narrow, ± 0.4 mm long, slightly notched. Stigmas 3. Nut obovoid, trigonous, shortly stipitate.

[From: Healy and Edgar (1980) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 3.]