Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Poales Small
Family
Cyperaceae Juss.
Genus
Machaerina Vahl
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Machaerina tenax (Hook.f.) T.Koyama, Bot. Mag. (Tokyo) 69: 66 (1956)
Synonymy:
  • ≡ Lampocarya tenax Hook.f., Bot. Antarct. Voy. II. (Fl. Nov.-Zel.) Part I, 277 (1853)
  • ≡ Cladium tenax (Hook.f.) Druce (1917)
  • ≡ Baumea tenax (Hook.f.) S.T.Blake (1969)
 Description

Light green, dense yet slender tufts. Rhizome 2–3 mm. diam., with culms closely and evenly spaced along it. Culms (15)–25–120–(165) cm. × 0.5–1.5 mm., terete, rigid and wiry. Lvs reduced to basal, reddish pink, sheathing bracts, but the uppermost often with a terete lamina like the culm. Infl. 5–25 cm. long, very narrow, spike-like; branchlets remote, slender, erect from sheathing mucronate bracts. Spikelets 6–8 mm. long, ± distant, not fascicled, light grey-brown or reddish, distinct at the tips of the branchlets, 1-fld. Glumes us. 3, the 2 lower glumes ± membr., lanceolate, shortly acuminate, the uppermost glume longer, spreading with maturation of the fr. Nut, including beak, c. 2.5 × 1.5 mm., ovoid, trigonous when immature, yellow, narrowed below to a short, dark brown stalk, narrowed above to a dark brown, pyramidal beak, c. 1 mm. long, rounded at the tip.

[From: Moore and Edgar (1970) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 2. as Baumea tenax (Hook.f.) S.T.Blake]

 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.
Koyama, T. 1956: Taxonomic Study of Cyperaceae V. Botanical Magazine (Tokyo) 69: 59–67.