The New Zealand Plant Conservation Network

Species

Centrolepis strigosa

Etymology

Centrolepis: pointed scale

Common Name(s)

Centrolepis

Current Conservation Status

2018 - Threatened - Nationally Endangered

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

2012 - Threatened - Nationally Critical
2009 - At Risk - Naturally Uncommon
2004 - Sparse

Qualifiers

2012 - EF, RR, SO, Sp
2009 - SO, EF

Authority

Centrolepis strigosa (R.Br.) Roem. et Schult.

Family

Restionaceae

Flora Category

Vascular - Native

NVS Species Code

CENSTR

Structural Class

Monocotyledonous Herbs

Synonyms

Desvauxia strigosa R.Br.

Distribution

Indigenous. New Zealand: North and South Islands. In the North Island known locally from the Kai Iwi Lakes, Glinks Gully and Bayly's Beach (west of Dargaville) to Lake Ototoa (see de Lange 2011). In the South Island known only from near Bluff Hill and Invercargill. Also in Australia

Habitat

Coastal to lowland. Growing in open clay, sand or silty places in damp places near lake or pond margins, or on open sand pans within gumland scrub (see de Lange 2011).

Features

Delicate tufted annual 15-70 mm tall. Roots fine, fibrous (whole plant easily detached from soil). Leaves 10-30 x 0.2 mm, filiform, grey-green to green, hispid the surfaces being covered in long white, rigid, multicellular hairs; apices acicular, otherwise leaves broadening toward a membranous sheath. Flowering stems 20-65 x 0.4 mm, much longer than leaves, hispid with very fine somewhat tangled, white hairs. Glume-like bracts 2-3, these 3 mm long, green or pinkish-green with a narrow membranous margin, ovate and spreading, covered with long, rigid, multicellular hairs; awns glabrous 1 mm long with an acicular apex. Pseudanthia 4-8 in each bract, these almost equal to bracts in length, each with 3 hyaline, unequal, fringed scales, one very much shorter the other two of similar length, sheathing the male and female flowers, Male flowers set with 1 per partial inflorescence, females 4-8 per partial inflorescence, connate and superposed in 2 rows, or occasionally appearing spirally arranged. Styles not connate. Seed 0.5 mm long, brown with a dark tip at each end, obovate-oblong, blunt at the apex, surface finely reticulated.

Similar Taxa

None. A very distinctive and singular species which has little resemblance to the other endemic New Zealand species (see Fact Sheets).

Flowering

December - February

Fruiting

December - March (- April)

Propagation Technique

Difficult. Should not be removed from the wild.

Threats

A naturally uncommon, biologically sparse, seasonal annual. Although it has not been reliably reported from Bluff and Invercargill for many years it is probably still present there. It is seasonally abundant at the Kai Iwi Lakes (de Lange 2011).

Endemic Taxon

No

Endemic Genus

No

Endemic Family

No

Life Cycle and Dispersal

Seeds are wind dispersed (Thorsen et al., 2009).

This page last updated on 24 May 2016