Classification
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Centrolepis glabra (F.Muell. ex Sond.) Hieron., Abh. Naturf. Ges. Halle 12: 209-210 (1873)
Synonymy:
  • Devauxia glabra F.Muell. ex Sond., Linnaea 28: 226 (1856)
Holotype: Mount Emu Creek [Victoria], Mueller s.n., MEL 536058!
  • = Alepyrum muelleri Hook.f., Bot. Antarct. Voy. III. (Fl. Tasman.) Part II, 78 (1858)
Holotype: Macquarie River [Tasmania], ex herb. R.C. Gunn s.n., K
  • = Centrolepis platychlamys Reader, Vict. Naturalist 23: 23 (1906)
Little Desert, Lowan [Victoria], F. Reader s.n., Nov 1900, MEL
 Description

Annual tuft, 4–30 mm high. Stem internodes condensed and not discernible. Leaves spiral, appearing radical, spreading. Leaf-sheath 1–3.5 mm long, hyaline, glabrous. Leaf-sheath auricles absent; aligulate. Leaf-lamina 2.5–24 × 0.4–0.5 mm, subulate, with an acuminate apex, terete to faintly compressed, glabrous. Uppermost leaf reduced to a membranous cataphyll. Flowering stems 1.5–14 mm long, glabrous. Inflorescence an ovoid spike, 3–4 × 0.8–1.4 mm. Outer primary floral bract 3.0–4 mm long, ovate and narrowing to a foliar point; papillate. Inner floral bract, 1.6–2.5 long mm, ovate; papillate. Internode between primary bracts absent. Secondary hyaline scales absent. Reproductive units/spike 3–6, 2 or 3 bisexual, the others female. Androecium 1 stamen; filament capillary, 2–4 mm long; anthers ellipsoid, 0.6–1 mm long. Gynoecium (2)–3–6 connate, superposed carpels. Styles stigmatic with simple papillae, crimson. Seeds, 0.5–0.6 × 0.24–0.3 mm, obovoid, yellow to yellow-brown or red-brown, faintly striated.

 Recognition

Distinguished from C. pallida, which is also glabrous, by a tufted habit with leaves appearing radical, whereas C. pallida forms tight cushions and has a distinctly distichous leaf arrangement. Also, C. glabra has a membranous cataphyll subtending the flowering stem, whereas in C. pallida a normal leaf subtends the flowering stem.

 Distribution

South Island: Spider Lakes in mid Canterbury, Ahuriri River near Snowy Gorge Creek junction in south Canterbury, Lakes Te Anau and Manapouri in Southland.

In Australia, occurring in five states: Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania (Cooke 1992).

 Habitat

Associated with fluctuations of shorelines of kettlehole tarns and lakes in the montane to upper montane zone from 200 to 800 m a.s.l. Initially growing below the waterline in silt or sand, or in a sandy matrix of gravel and rock, then flowering and fruiting above the receding waterline during late summer and autumn.

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Non-endemic)
 Phenology

Flowering: Mar.-May

 Notes

New Zealand plants have slightly larger seeds and longer anthers than recorded from Australian plants (Cooke 1992).

 Bibliography
Cooke, D.A. 1992: A Taxonomic Revision of Centrolepis (Centrolepidaceae) in Australia. Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens 15: 7–63.
Curtis, W.M.; Morris, D. I. 1994: The Students' Flora of Tasmania. 4B, Angiospermae: Alismataceae to Burmanniaceae. St David's Park Publishing, Hobart.
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. [Naturally Uncommon]
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.
Ford, K.A. 2014: Taxonomic notes on the New Zealand flora: a new species of Centrolepis for New Zealand, Centrolepis glabra (F.Muell. ex Sonder) Hieron., and the taxonomic status of Centrolepis minima Kirk (Centrolepidaceae). New Zealand Journal of Botany 52(2): 262–266.
Hieronymus, G.H.E.W. 1873: Beiträge zur Kenntnis der Centrolepidaceen. Abhandlungen der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft zu Halle 12: 115–222.
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, P.N.; Brooke, P. A. 1989: Wetland Plants in New Zealand. DSIR Publishing, Wellington.
Reader, F.M. 1906: Contributions to the flora of Victoria No. XVI. Victorian Naturalist 23: 23.
Sonder, O.W. 1856: Plantae Muellerianae - Desvauxieae. Linnaea 28(2): 226–227.