Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Poales Small
Family
Cyperaceae Juss.
Genus
Ficinia Schrad.
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Ficinia spiralis (A.Rich.) Muasya & de Lange, New Zealand J. Bot. 48: 37-38 (2010)
Synonymy:
  • ≡ Isolepis spiralis A.Rich., Essai Fl. Nouv.-Zél., 105, t.19 (1832)
  • ≡ Desmoschoenus spiralis (A.Rich.) Hook.f., Bot. Antarct. Voy. II. (Fl. Nov.-Zel.) Part I, 272 (1853)
  • ≡ Scirpus spiralis (A.Rich.) Druce, Bot. Soc. Exch. Club Brit. Isles Suppl. 2: 646 (1917 [1916]) nom. inval.
  • = Anthophyllum urvillei Steud., Syn. Pl. Glumac. 2, 160 (1855)
  • = Scirpus frondosus Banks & Sol. ex Boeckeler (1878)
 Description

Plants yellow-green, golden when dry, with stiff culms and very harsh lvs. Rhizome 1–1.5 cm. diam., shortly creeping, very hard and woody, covered by fibrous strands from decaying lf-sheaths. Culms ∞, 30–90 cm. × 2–4 mm., erect, obtusely trigonous, very lfy at the base. Lvs ∞, ± = culms, 2–5 mm. wide, often curved, coriac., linear, concavo-convex or ± channelled, margins and keel sharply denticulate, narrowed to a long, trigonous tip; sheaths submembr., much broader than lvs, with ∞, red-brown veins. Infl. 7–20–(30) cm. long, a very congested panicle of c. 12 confluent clusters of sessile Spikelets, each cluster subtended by a rigid lf-like bract adnate to the axis and broadening at base to an open sheath, lower bracts much exceeding infl. Spikelets 4–5 mm. long, dark red-brown. Glumes coriac., rigid, broadly ovate, obtuse, distinctly nerved, finely mucronulate, the lower ones ± keeled. Nut 2.5–4 × 2–2.5 mm., broadly obovoid, concavo-convex, compressed, obtuse, dark brown, smooth and shining.

[From: Moore and Edgar (1970) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 2 as Desmoschoenus spiralis (A.Rich.) Hook.f.]

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
 Bibliography
de Lange, P.J.; Norton, D.A.; Courtney, S.P.; Heenan, P.B.; Barkla, J.W.; Cameron, E.K.; Hitchmough, R.; Townsend, A.J. 2009: Threatened and uncommon plants of New Zealand (2008 revision). New Zealand Journal of Botany 47: 61–96. [as Desmoschoenus spiralis (A.Rich.) Hook.f.] [Relic]
de Lange, P.J.; Norton, D.A.; Heenan, P.B.; Courtney, S.P.; Molloy, B.P.J.; Ogle, C.C.; Rance, B.D. 2004: Threatened and uncommon plants of New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 42(1): 45–76. [as Desmoschoenus spiralis (A.Rich.) Hook.f.]
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. [Declining]
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. [Declining]
Druce, G.C. 1917: Report / Botanical Society and Exchange Club of the British Isles for 1916, Suppl. 2
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.
Muasya, A.M.; de Lange, P.J. 2010: Ficinia spiralis (Cyperaceae) a new genus and combination for Desmoschoenus spiralis. New Zealand Journal of Botany 48(1): 31–39.
Richard, A. 1832: Essai d'une Flore de la Nouvelle Zélande. In: Dumont d'Urville, J. Voyage de découvertes de l'Astrolabe. Botanique. Tastu, Paris.
Steudel, E.G. 1855: Synopsis Plantarum Glumacearum. Vol. 2. Stuttgart.