Centrolepis pallida (Hook.f.) Cheeseman

Perennial cushion, 8–45 mm high. Stems ascending, branching. Leaves distichous, cauline and imbricate, weakly spreading to erect. Leaf-sheath 2.8–6.5 mm long, scariose, glabrous. Leaf-sheath auricles absent; aligulate. Leaf-lamina 1.5–5.5 × 0.3–0.8 mm, ensiform to subulate, with an acute or acuminate apex, terete to compressed, glabrous. Uppermost leaf normal. Flowering stems 2–11 mm long, glabrous. Inflorescence an ovoid spike, 3.2–6 × 0.8–1.5 mm. Outer primary floral bract 3.3–6.0 mm long, ovate and often narrowing to a short foliar point; papillate. Inner floral bract, 2.4–4.7 mm long, ovate occasionally mucronate; papillate. Internode between primary bracts absent. Secondary hyaline scales absent. Reproductive units/spike (1)- 2–(4), one bisexual (occ. 2) the other(s) female. Androecium 1–(2) stamen; filament capillary, 2–15 mm long; anthers ellipsoid, 1.4–2.4 mm long. Gynoecium 2–4–(5) connate, superposed carpels. Styles stigmatic with simple papillae, crimson. Seeds 0.56–0.7 × 0.32–0.4 mm, obovoid, red-brown, smooth.

Distinguished from C. glabra by a cushion habit and a distinctly distichous arrangement of leaves, whereas C. glabra forms singular tufts and the leaf arrangement appears radical. Also, a normal leaf subtends the flowering stem in C. pallida, not a membranous cataphyll as in C. glabra. Distinguished from C.ciliata by being completely glabrous and the absence of secondary hyaline scales within the primary floral bracts.

Subalpine to alpine bogs, flushes, turfs, tarns and stream margins to 1890 m a.s.l., often on the flat tops of hills in bogs, but common on the sandy and rocky shores of the southern South Island glacial lakes (sometimes submerged below the waterline); descending to sea level in the southern South Island (Sandy Point) and Stewart Island (Masons Bay).

Flowering: Dec.-Jan.

Some populations of predominantly aquatic cushions are often reddish green, have longer subulate leaves and more reproductive units/spike, 3 rather than 2. Such populations have been recorded in Southland in Lakes Manapouri and Te Anau, and in Green Lake.