Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Poales Small
Family
Cyperaceae Juss.
Genus
Schoenus L.
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Schoenus pauciflorus (Hook.f.) Hook.f., Handb. New Zealand Fl. 298 (1864)
Synonymy:
  • ≡ Chaetospora pauciflora Hook.f., Bot. Antarct. Voy. II. (Fl. Nov.-Zel.) Part I, 273 (1853)
Vernacular Name(s):
Bog rush; False snowgrass; Sedge tussock
 Description

Rush-like; rhizome short, hard and woody, up to 3 mm. diam. Culms (10)–30–80–(90) cm. × 0.5–1.5 mm., densely tufted, longitudinally striate, grey-green or often red. Lvs reduced to ∞, very dark red-purple, basal sheaths, the uppermost 4–14 cm. long, the mucro much elongated, with toothed margins, occ. green. Panicle 1.5–3 cm. long, ± compact, with (1)–2–6–(9) spikelets at the tips of erect, slightly scabrid branchlets, the whole subtended by a stiff bract overtopping the panicle. Spikelets c. 5 mm. long, 2–4-fld, lanceolate. Glumes 4–6, lanceolate, 2–3 lowermost smaller, empty, membr. and colourless, or occ. brown; upper glumes darker brown, pale at the centre, margins hyaline, not ciliate. Hypog. bristles 6, filiform, almost = style, scabrid, persistent. Stamens 3. Style-branches 3, style often persistent. Nut 2–2.5 mm. long, slightly < 1 mm. wide, elliptic-oblong, greenish brown to red-brown, lighter brown at the angles, shining, smooth.

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

 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. [Not Threatened]
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.
Hooker, J.D. 1864: Handbook of the New Zealand Flora: a systematic description of the native plants of New Zealand and the Chatham, Kermadec's, Lord Auckland's, Campbell's and Macquarie's Islands. Part I. Reeve, London.