Citation: Boeckeler, Bot. Jb. 5:498 (1884).

Synonymy: Mariscus rutilans C.B. Clarke, Kew Bull. add. ser. 8:18 (1908); C. rutilans (C.B. Clarke)Maiden & Betche, Census N.S.W. Pl. 28 (1916).

Common name: Flat-sedge.

Description:
Perennial, with a short but distinct creeping rhizome; stems tufted, 10-60 cm high, rather slender, trigonous, finely striate, smooth, with bases non-bulbous (cf. C. sp. aff. cunninghamii) and dull and pinkish or purple-red below but whitish above; leaves shorter than or equalling the stems, rather rigid but grass-like, flat or complicate, 2-3 mm broad; bracts like the leaves, 2 or 3, the lower much longer than the inflorescence.

Umbel simple to subcompound, with 3-7 somewhat stout more or less recurved rays to 11 cm long; spikelets subdigitate, numerous in dense subglobular heads, brown, oblong-lanceolate, 6-12 mm long, 2.5-4 mm broad, compressed, 8-12-flowered, usually deciduous as a whole when ripe; rhachilla not or but slightly winged; glumes rather close together, soon spreading with acute and mucronate erect or recurved tips, keeled and several-nerved, 2.6-3.5 mm long; style 3-branched.

Nut oblong or oblong-obovoid, subacute, shortly cuneate to the narrow base, 1.7-2 x 0.6-0.8 mm, trigonous, angles rounded, sides convex to concave, straw-coloured, covered with a shiny transparent faint reticulate-papillose layer, about two-thirds as long as the glume.

Distribution:  Grows in wet places. S.Aust.: SE.   N.S.W.; Vic. Conservation status: native Flowering time: Nov. — Jan.

SA Distribution Map based on current data relating to specimens held in the State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: This species is very similar to C. sp. aft. cunninghamii and C. alterniflorus.

Author: Not yet available