Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Poales Small
Family
Cyperaceae Juss.
Genus
Schoenus L.
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Schoenus apogon Roem. & Schult. (1817)
Synonymy:
  • = Chaetospora imberis R.Br., Prodr. Fl. Nov. Holland. 233 (1810)
  • = Schoenus laxiflorus Steud., Syn. Pl. Glumac. 2, 166 (1855)
  • ≡ Schoenus apogon var. laxiflorus (Steud.) C.B.Clarke ex Cheeseman, Man. New Zealand Fl. 783 (1906)
  • = Schoenus brownii Hook.f., Handb. New Zealand Fl. 298 (1864)
  • = Schoenus vacillans Kirk, Trans. & Proc. New Zealand Inst. 10: 421 (1878)
 Description

Culms ∞, densely tufted, rather flaccid, unbranched, glab. or occ. scabrid just below infl. Lvs 4–18 cm. long, very narrow-linear, acute, channelled, margins slightly scabrid; sheaths membr., reddish. Panicle of us. 2, distant or ± approximate fascicles, the terminal one us. with almost sessile, densely clustered spikelets, lower fascicles often with stalked, loosely clustered spikelets; bract subtending each fascicle lf-like, lowest bract us. overtopping whole infl. Glumes dark red-brown to almost black, us. with a paler centre, midrib often slightly scabrid, 1–3 lowermost glumes smaller, empty, often mucronate. Hypog. bristles 6, > nut. Stamens 3. Style-branches 3. Nut slightly < 1 mm. long, c. 0.5 mm. wide, elliptic-ovoid, almost globose, obtuse, apiculate, white, the 3 angles green or yellow.

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

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Non-endemic)
 Bibliography
Brown, R. 1810: Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van-Diemen. Johnson, London.
Cheeseman, T.F. 1906: Manual of the New Zealand Flora. Government Printer, Wellington.
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. 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.
Kirk, T. 1878: Descriptions of new plants. Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute 10: 419–421.
Steudel, E.G. 1855: Synopsis Plantarum Glumacearum. Vol. 2. Stuttgart.