Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Poales Small
Family
Cyperaceae Juss.
Genus
Carex L.
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Carex banksiana K.A.Ford in Global Carex Group, Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 179: 29-30 (2015)
Synonymy:
  • ≡ Uncinia banksii Boott in Hooker, Bot. Antarct. Voy. II. (Fl. Nov.-Zel.) Part I, 287 (1853)
  • ≡ Uncinia riparia var. banksii (Boott) C.B.Clarke (1883)
  • = Uncinia capillaris Colenso, Trans. & Proc. New Zealand Inst. 20: 210 (1887 [1888])
Etymology:
This name honours Sir Joseph Banks (1743–1820), as did the previous epithet.
 Description

Very dense blue-green or bright green tufts. Culms 10–35 cm. long, much < 0.5 mm. diam., glab., terete; basal bracts dull reddish brown. Lvs 3–6 per culm, = or > culm, 0.5–1.5 mm. wide, very soft, harshly scabrid on margins and upper surface towards the long filiform tip. Spikes 3–7 cm. × 1–2 mm., occ. bracteate, female fls c. 5–10, all distant, internodes (1)–4–10 mm. long, male glumes scarcely imbricating. Glumes much < utricles, deciduous, ovate or oblong, acute or acuminate, hyaline with a green midrib. Utricles (4.5)–5–6 mm. long, slightly < 1 mm. diam., plano-convex or terete, narrow-lanceolate or oblong, strongly nerved, rarely smooth, green to very pale brown, not spreading at maturity, distinctly contracted to a stipe 0.5–1 mm. long, beak 1–1.5 mm. long.

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

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
 Bibliography
Colenso, W. 1888: On new Phænogamic plants of New Zealand. Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute 20: 188–211.
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. [as Uncinia banksii Boott] [Not Threatened]
Global Carex Group 2015: Making Carex monophyletic (Cyperaceae, tribe Cariceae): a new broader circumscription. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 179: 1–42.
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.