Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Poales Small
Family
Restionaceae R.Br.
Genus
Empodisma L.A.S.Johnson & D.F.Cutler
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Empodisma minus (Hook.f.) L.A.S.Johnson & D.F.Cutler, Kew Bull. 28: 383 (1974)
Synonymy:
  • ≡ Calorophus minor Hook.f., Bot. Antarct. Voy. II. (Fl. Nov.-Zel.) Part I, 267 (1853)
  • ≡ Calorophus elongatus var. minor (Hook.f.) Hook.f., Bot. Antarct. Voy. III. (Fl. Tasman.) Part II, 75 (1858)
  • ≡ Hypolaena lateriflora var. minor (Hook.f.) Cheeseman, Man. New Zealand Fl. 762 (1906)
Vernacular Name(s):
Wire rush
 Description

Rhizome very stout compared to stems, erect, up to 8 mm. diam., covered with light brown, overlapping, scale-like sheaths and very thick tufts of brown hairs; roots ∞, 1–1.5 mm. diam., densely covered by persistent root hairs. Culms (8)–15–40–(120) cm. × (0.5)–1–1.5 mm., much-branched, flexuous, terete or grooved on one side, glab., bright green or bronze-brown, erect when short, procumbent when longer. Lvs reduced to mucronate sheaths, closely appressed to culm, distant, green at first, later dark brown, rigid, margin entire; the cilia protruding through the mouth of the sheath in tufts of white crinkled hairs arise from the outer scale of an axillary bud within the sheath; mucro long, fine, sharp-pointed, recurved or erect. Spikelets distant within uppermost sheaths. Male spikelets solitary or us. 2, 1 sessile and 1 stalked, within each hard, mucronate sheath, 1–4–(6)–fld; ♂, tepals 6, narrow-linear, acute; stamens 3, filaments slender, > tepals, anthers exserted beyond the floral bract. Female spikelets solitary within 1–3 uppermost, bearded, obtuse sheaths, 1-fld, with 2 imbricate, empty floral bracts; ♀, tepals 6–4, very small, hyaline; styles 3, free. Fr. a hard, oval nut, > persistent tepals, sessile on a thick receptacle. 2n = 24.

[From: Moore and Edgar (1970) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 2 as Calorophus minor Hook.f.]

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Non-endemic)
 Bibliography
Cheeseman, T.F. 1906: Manual of the New Zealand Flora. Government Printer, Wellington.
Connor, H.E.; Edgar, E. 1987: Name changes in the indigenous New Zealand flora, 1960–1986 and Nomina Nova IV, 1983–1986. New Zealand Journal of Botany 25: 115–170.
de Lange, P.J.; Rolfe, J.R.; Barkla J.W.; Courtney, S.P.; Champion, P.D.; Perrie, L.R.; Beadel, S.N.; Ford, K.A.; Breitwieser, I.; Schönberger, I.; Hindmarsh-Walls, R.; Heenan, P.B.; Ladley, K. 2018: Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2017. New Zealand Threat Classification Series. No. 22. [Not Threatened]
de Lange, P.J.; Rolfe, J.R.; Champion, P.D.; Courtney, S.P.; Heenan, P.B.; Barkla, J.W.; Cameron, E.K.; Norton, D.A.; Hitchmough, R.A. 2013: Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2012. New Zealand Threat Classification Series 3. Department of Conservation, Wellington. [Not Threatened]
Hooker, J.D. 1852–1853 ("1853"): The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage of H.M. Discovery Ships Erebus and Terror in the Years 1839–1843, under the command of Captain Sir James Clark Ross. II. Flora Novae-Zelandiae. Part I. Flowering plants. Lovell Reeve, London.
Hooker, J.D. 1858–1859: The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage of H.M. Discovery Ships Erebus and Terror in the Years 1839–1843, under the command of Captain Sir James Clark Ross. III. Flora Tasmaniae. Part II. Monocotyledones and acotyledones. Lovell Reeve, London.
Johnson, L.A.S.; Cutler, D. F. 1974: Empodisma: a new genus of Australasian Restionaceae. Kew Bulletin 28: 381–385.
Wagstaff, S.J.; Clarkson, B.R. 2012: Systematics and ecology of the Australasian genus Empodisma (Restionaceae) and description of a new species from peatlands in northern New Zealand. PhytoKeys 13: 39–79.