The New Zealand Plant Conservation Network

Species

Schoenus tendo

Etymology

Schoenus: rush

Common Name(s)

kauri sedge, kauri Schoenus

Current Conservation Status

2012 - Not Threatened

Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2012
The conservation status of all known New Zealand vascular plant taxa at the rank of species and below were reassessed in 2012 using the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS). This report includes a statistical summary and brief notes on changes since 2009 and replaces all previous NZTCS lists for vascular plants. Authors: Peter J. de Lange, Jeremy R. Rolfe, Paul D. Champion, Shannel P. Courtney, Peter B. Heenan, John W. Barkla, Ewen K. Cameron, David A. Norton and Rodney A. Hitchmough. File size: 792KB

Previous Conservation Status

2009 - Not Threatened
2004 - Not Threatened

Authority

Schoenus tendo (Hook.f.) Hook.f.

Family

Cyperaceae

Flora Category

Vascular - Native

NVS Species Code

SCHTEN

Structural Class

Sedges

Synonyms

Chaetospora tendo Banks et Sol. ex Hook.f.

Distribution

Endemic. North Island from North Cape to about the southern Waikato, near Awakino and the Bay of Plenty.

Habitat

Coastal to lowland. Mostly in gumland or tea tree scrub and in regenerating kauri (Agathis australis (D.Don) Lindl.) forest. Sometimes persistent on clay hills coverted to pasture. Rarely colonising the margins of peat bogs.

Features

Rush-like sedge up to 1 m tall. Rhizome short, hard, lignaceous, up to 4 mm diameter, loosely covered in brown or greyish-brown bracts. Culms densely crowded, erect or drooping (often forming dense tangles), 0.4-1.2m long, c.1 mm diameter, light green to dark green, glossy. Leaves reduced to sheathing mucronate bracts, dark red-purple, almost black, the mucro more elongated in the uppermost bracts; mouth of sheath fringed by cobwebby hairs. Panicle 15-120 mm long, very narrow, with more or less distant fascicles of 3-4 branchlets, each fascicle subtended by a sheath 0.5-1.5 mm long, ciliate at the mouth; branchlets flexuous, laterally compressed and toothed along edges, each bearing a solitary spikelet or branched again. Spikelets 5-8 mm long, 2-4-flowered, linear-lanceolate, dark brown to almost black. Glumes 10-13, ovate lanceolate acute, margins ciliate towards the apex with tangled woolly hairs, the lower 6-8 glumes shorter, empty, 2-4 succeeding glumes fertile, the 2 upper glumes empty. Hypogynous bristles 3-6, thread-like, less than or greater than nut. Stamens 2. Style-branches 2(-3). Nut 1.5 x 1.0 mm, pale cream or light brown, unequally biconvex, obovoid, obtuse to retuse, surface smooth.

Similar Taxa

Easily recognised by the large often drooping green culms, sheaths fringed with cobwebby hairs, and preference for poorly drained clay soils (usually in gumland scrub) or under kauri. It could only be confused with S. carsei which is confined to acidic peat bogs and lake margins, has yellow-green to orange-green culms, and whose sheaths lack the distinctive cobwebby orifices diagnostic of S. tendo. Schoenus tendo also differs from S. carsei by having mostly 2 rather than 3 style-branches.

Flowering

September - January

Fruiting

October - July

Propagation Technique

Difficult. Can be grown from the division of whole plants and fresh seed but resents root disturbance. Best in a permanently damp, somewhat acidic soil in full sun.

Threats

Not Threatened

Chromosome No.

2n = 70

Endemic Taxon

Yes

Endemic Genus

No

Endemic Family

No

This page last updated on 14 Aug 2014