Classification
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Centrolepis ciliata (Hook.f.) Druce, Bot. Soc. Exch. Club Brit. Isles 4 Suppl.: 614 (1917)
Synonymy:
  • Gaimardia ciliata Hook.f., Bot. Antarct. Voy. I. (Fl. Antarct.) Part I, 85 (1844)
  • Alepyrum ciliatum (Hook.f.) Hieron. in Engler & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam.II, 4, 14 (1888)
  • Pseudalepyrum ciliatum (Hook.f.) Dandy, J. Bot. 70: 331 (1932)
Lectotype: (selected by E. Edgar 1970) Ld Auckland Isld., J.D. Hooker s.n., Nov. 1840, K 843388!, isolectotype AK 2910!
  • = Centrolepis viridis var. ligulata Kirk, Trans. New Zealand Inst. 23: 442 (1891)
  • Gaimardia ciliata var. ligulata (Kirk) Cheeseman, Man. New Zealand Fl., ed. 2, 289 (1925)
  • Pseudalepyrum ciliatum var. ligulatum (Kirk) Dandy, J. Bot. 70: 331 (1932)
Type: Frazer Peaks, Stewart Id, T. Kirk 965, Jan 1887, WELT 16335!; K.
  • = Centrolepis viridis (Kirk) Kirk, Trans. New Zealand Inst. 23: 441 (1891)
Etymology:
From Latin cilium (a short eye-lash-like hair), a reference to hairs on the leaf-sheath
 Description

Perennial cushion, 5–100 mm high. Stems ascending, branching. Leaves crowded, obscurely distichous, cauline and imbricate, weakly spreading to erect. Leaf-sheath 2.5–6 mm long, scarious, with multicellular hispid hairs. Leaf-sheath auricles lobed or absent; ligulate, sometimes minute or occasionally pilose. Leaf-lamina 2.5–23 × 0.4–0.7 mm, subulate, with an acute or acicular apex, terete to faintly channelled, glabrous or with pilose hairs below. Uppermost leaf, leaf-like or reduced to a membranous cataphyll. Flowering stems 3.5–20 mm long, glabrous. Inflorescence a compressed ellipsoid to oblong spike, 2.6–5 × 1–1.5 mm. Outer primary floral bract 2.6–5 mm long, elliptic and contracting to an incurved or straight foliar point; papillate. Inner floral bract, 2–4 mm long, elliptic to oblong contracting to an incurved or straight foliar point; papillate. Primary bracts separated by an internode 0.2–0.8 mm long. Secondary hyaline scales present, 1/reproductive unit. Reproductive units/spike 2–3(–5) all bisexual or 1–2 bisexual the rest female. Androecium 1 stamen; filament capillary, 3–7 mm long; anthers fusiform, 0.96–1.6 mm long. Gynoecium, 1–2–(3) connate, superposed carpels. Styles stigmatic with branched papillae, crimson. Seeds 0.75–1 × 0.3–0.5 mm, ellipsoid, yellow to yellow-brown or brown, striated.

 Recognition

Distinguished from the two other cushion bog centrolepids with which it can occur, Centrolepis pallida and Gaimardia setacea, by hairy leaf-sheaths, both primary inflorescence bracts contracted to mucronate foliar points, and the presence of secondary hyaline scales within the primary floral bracts.

 Distribution

North Island: South Auckland (Hauhungaroa Range, Raukūmara Range, Kaimanawa, Tongariro, National Park, Urewera National Park), Taranaki, Volcanic Plateau, Wellington (Ruahine and Tararua ranges).

South Island: Nelson, Marlborough, Westland, Canterbury, Otago, Southland, Fiordland.

Stewart Island, Auckland Islands, Campbell Island.

 Habitat

Montane to alpine bogs, flushes, turfs, tarn edges, pakihi and wet heathlands to 1600 m a.s.l., descending to sea-level in the south and west of the South Island in lowland pakihi, peat bogs and oligotrophic swamps.

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
 Phenology

Flowering: Nov.-Jan.

 Notes

Plants on the New Zealand mainland have inflorescence bracts with distinctive incurved foliar points whereas plants from the Auckland and Campbell islands have foliar points more-or-less straight.

 Bibliography
Cheeseman, T.F. 1925: Manual of the New Zealand Flora. Edition 2. Government Printer, Wellington.
Dandy, J.E. 1932: Pseudalepyrum Dandy. Journal of Botany, British and Foreign 70: 330–331.
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]
Druce, G. C. 1917 ("1916"): Nomenclatural Notes: Chiefly African and Australian. Report / Botanical Society and Exchange Club of the British Isles for 1916, 4 Suppl.: 601–653.
Engler, H.G.A.; Prantl, K.A.E. 1888: Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien II Teil, IV Abteilung. Leipzig.
Ford, K.A. 2014: Centrolepidaceae. In: Breitwieser, I.; Brownsey, P.J.; Heenan, P.B.; Wilton, A.D. (ed.) Flora of New Zealand — Seed Plants. Fascicle 2. Manaaki Whenua Press, Lincoln.
Hooker, J.D. 1844–1845: 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. I. Flora Antarctica. Part I. Botany of Lord Auckland’s Group and Campbell’s Island. Reeve, Brothers, London.
Johnson, P.N.; Brooke, P. A. 1989: Wetland Plants in New Zealand. DSIR Publishing, Wellington.
Kirk, T. 1891: Description of a New Species of Centrolepis, Labill. Transactions of the New Zealand Institute 23: 441–443.