Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Poales Small
Family
Cyperaceae Juss.
Genus
Carex L.
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Carex punicea K.A.Ford in Global Carex Group, Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 179: 36 (2015)
Synonymy:
  • ≡ Uncinia rubra Colenso ex Boott in Hooker, Bot. Antarct. Voy. II. (Fl. Nov.-Zel.) Part I, 287, t. 64, fig. A (1853)
  • = Uncinia rubra var. fallax Kük., Pflanzenr. (Engler) 38 , (1909)
Etymology:
The name refers to the red colour of the whole plant.
 Description

Whole plant dark red, rarely reddish green, laxly caespitose or shortly rhizomatous. Culms 15–35 cm. × < 1 mm., rigid, minutely scabrid on the angles under the infl. Lvs 2–3–(5) per culm, much < to slightly > culm, (0.7)–1–2–(2.5) mm. wide, rather rigid, margins slightly scabrid, tapering rather abruptly towards the tip. Spikes 2.5–6–(7) cm. × 3–5 mm., us. ebracteate, female fls c. 10, sts aborted, internodes to 10 mm. long at base of spike, 3–6 mm. long above. Glumes = or < utricles, persistent, obtuse or lowermost subacute, coriac., red with a pale margin. Utricles 5–6–(6.5) mm. long, plano-convex, concavo-convex or subtrigonous, fusiform, striated, yellowish green, later yellow-brown, narrowed above to a beak 1–1.5 mm. long, and scarcely narrowed below to a paler stipe 1–1.5 mm. long.

[From: Moore and Edgar (1970) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 2. as Uncinia rubra Boott]

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
 Bibliography
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. [as Uncinia rubra Colenso ex Boott] [Not Threatened]
Global Carex Group 2015: Making Carex monophyletic (Cyperaceae, tribe Cariceae): a new broader circumscription. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 179: 1–42.
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.
Kükenthal, G. 1909: Cyperaceae - Caricoideae. In: Engler, H.G.A. (ed.) Das Pflanzenreich. Vol. Heft 38.