Citation: Roemer & Schultes, Syst. Veg. 2:77 (1817).

Synonymy: Chaetospora imberbis R. Br., Prod. Fl. Nov. Holl. 233 (1810); S. brownii Hook. f., Handb. N.Z. Fl. 298 (1867).

Common name: Common bog-rush.

Description:
Tufted slender perennial, mostly 5-25 cm high; stems filiform, rather prominently striate, 1-3-noded below the inflorescence; both basal and stem leaves setaceous or nearly so, as long as the stems in small plants, much shorter than them in taller plants.

Inflorescence consisting of 2-5 loose or dense sessile or pedunculate clusters (usually dense and subsessile) of spikelets, 1 terminal, the others axillary, distant or close together, sometimes compound; bracts like the leaves, the lower ones exceeding the spikelets, gradually shorter upwards, the uppermost often inconspicuous; spikelets prominently pedicellate to sessile, brown to blackish, lanceolate or somewhat oblong, 4-7 mm long, rather compressed, usually 2- or 3-flowered; glumes glabrous, 3-4.5 mm long, often somewhat scabrid on the keel, bristles 6, capillary, scabrous, from a little shorter to a little longer than the nut.

Nut subglobose, c. 1 x 0.8 mm, with 3 longitudinal ribs ending in the apiculate tip, sides convex, closely reticulate, white, shiny, almost smooth, about half the length of the glume.

Published illustration: Cunningham et al. (1982) Plants of western New South Wales, p. 169.

Distribution:  S.Aust.: FR, EP, NL, MU, YP, SL, KI, SE.   All States except W.Aust. and the N.T..   New Zealand; ?New Guinea and ?Japan. Conservation status: native Flowering time: usually Oct. — Jan. but also in winter.

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

Biology: No text

Author: Not yet available