Classification
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Gaimardia setacea Hook.f., Bot. Antarct. Voy. II. (Fl. Nov.-Zel.) Part I, 267 (1853)
Synonymy:
Lectotype: (selected by E. Edgar 1970) Port Preservation, New Zealand, Lyall s.n., K 843384!
Etymology:
From Latin seta (a stiff hair), in reference to the bristle-like leaf-lamina.
 Description

Perennial cushion, 15–80 mm high. Stems ascending, much branched towards the base. Leaves densely distichous, imbricate, weakly spreading to erect. Leaf-sheath, 3.2–6 mm long, scarious, glabrous, shiny red-brown, auricles absent, long ligulate with an acute apex. Leaf-lamina 4–8 × 0.3–0.5 mm, setaceous with a long hyaline acicular tip, terete to faintly channelled, glabrous. Uppermost leaf normal. Flowering stems 8–20 mm long, glabrous. Inflorescence a narrow ovoid spike, 2.8–5.0 × 0.7–1.0 mm, with 2–3 alternate bracts. Inflorescence bracts separated by a flattened internode, 1.5–2.0 mm long. The lowermost bract, 2.0–3.0 mm long, ovate with an acuminate or mucronate apex, occasionally emarginate, always subtending a bisexual flower, the smaller second bract subtending a bisexual flower or sterile, the third bract if present sterile. Androecium, stamens 2, free; filament capillary, 1.5–2.8 mm long; anthers 0.5–0.8 mm long, ellipsoid. Gynoecium a collateral bilocular ovary; styles 2, free; apical stigmatic part of style crowded with branched papillae, white. Seeds 0.8–1 × 0.28–0.4 mm, oblong-ovoid, yellow-brown or red-brown, faintly striated.

 Recognition

Distinguished from the two bog species of Centrolepis (C. ciliata and C. pallida), by 2–3 distinctly alternate inflorescence bracts, shiny red-brown or brown leaf-sheaths and the laminae with long hyaline needle-tips. Often found in close proximity with C. ciliata, but easily distinguished from that species, which has hairy leaf-sheaths, whereas Gaimardia setacea is completely glabrous.

 Distribution

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

Also recorded from Tasmania and New Guinea.

 Habitat

Subalpine to alpine bogs, peat and sphagnum bogs, turfs, wet open heathland from 400 to 1500 m.

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Non-endemic)
 Phenology

Flowering: Nov.–Jan.

 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. [Not Threatened]
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. 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.