Class
Order
Family
Genus
Classification
Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Carex colensoi Boott in Hooker, Bot. Antarct. Voy. II. (Fl. Nov.-Zel.) Part I, 281, t. 63B. (1853)
Synonymy:
Lectotype (selected by E. Edgar in Moore and Edgar 1970, p. 283): Dry plains, road to Manawarakau from Patangata [Hawke’s Bay], Colenso 1088, K 907573; isolectotypes: WELT 22190, K 907574
- = Carex picta Colenso, Trans. & Proc. New Zealand Inst. 21: 103-104 (1889)
Lectotype (selected by E. Edgar in Moore and Edgar 1970, p. 283): Open grassy plains at Tahoraiti, south of Dannevirke, County of Waipawa, W.C., 1887, WELT 21768; isolectotypes: AK 2548, K 907575
Vernacular Name(s):
colenso's sedge
Description
Slender tufts to 25 cm high; rhizome far-extending. Leaves < stems. Inflorescence relatively large, ± drooping on a very slender stem, an ovate cluster of 1–4 chestnut-brown sessile spikes, ± 1 cm long, with much longer green filiform bract. Male flowers at base of spikes. Stigmas 2.
[From: Healy and Edgar (1980) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 3.]
Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
Bibliography
Colenso, W. 1889: A description of some newly-discovered Phænogamic plants; being a further contribution towards the making known the botany of New Zealand. Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute 21: 80–108.
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]
Ford, K.A. 2025: A taxonomic revision of New Zealand species of Carex section Inversae Kük. (Carex subgenus Vignea, Cyperaceae). New Zealand Journal of Botany: 1–73 (online) DOI: 10.1080/0028825X.2025.2458506. (Published online: 13 Feb 2025)
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.
