# Manual of the New Zealand Flora/Restiaceæ

Order XC. RESTIACEÆ.
Sedge-like or rush-like perennial herbs, either tufted or with a creeping rhizome usually covered with imbricated scales. Stems rigid, simple or branched, erect or flexuose. Leaves either few, radical, linear and sedge-like, or more often nearly or altogether reduced to convolute scales sheathing the stem; sheaths usually split to the base. Flowers diœcious, very rarely hermaphrodite, in spikes or racemes or panicles, each flower furnished at the base with a dry and rigid bract (glume) and sometimes 2 bracteoles. Perianth regular, of 6, rarely more or less, rigid or scarious erect segments. Male flowers: Stamens 3; filaments free or rarely connate into a column; anthers oblong, usually 1-celled. Rudimentary ovary occasionally present. Female flowers: Staminodia present or absent. Ovary 1–3-celled; styles as many as the cells, free or connate at the base, stigmatic on the inner side; ovules solitary in each cell, pendulous, orthotropous. Fruit either a 1–3-celled capsule with longitudinal dehiscence or an indehiscent nut. Seeds 1 in each cell, pendulous, albumen farinaceous; embryo small, remote from the hilum.
A small order of about 20 genera and 230 species, almost confined to South Africa and Australia, the only species found outside these countries being the three occurring in New Zealand, one in Chili, and one in Cochin-China. Thu species have no important uses or properties.
| Spikelets many-flowered, panicled. Ovary 3-celled. Fruit 3-angled, dehiscing at the angles | 1. Lepyrodia. |
| Spikelets many-flowered, panicled. Ovary 1-celled. Nut 3-angled, indehiscent | 2. Leptocarpus. |
| Spikelets few-flowered, female 1-flowered. Ovary 1-celled. Nut ovoid, terete, smooth | 3. Hypolæna. |
1. LEPYRODIA, R. Br.
Rhizome stout, creeping, scaly. Stems erect, simple or branched, terete. Leaves reduced to persistent or rarely deciduous sheathing scales. Flowers diœcious or monœcious, rarely hermaphrodite, in rather broad or narrow panicles, sometimes almost spicate, the inflorescence not conspicuously different in the two sexes. Glumes lanceolate, scarcely imbricate; bracteoles 2 at the base of each flower. Male flowers: Perianth-segments 6, glume-like or thin ​and almost hyaline. Stamens 3; filaments distinct; anthers 1-celled. Female flowers: Perianth as in the males. Staminodia 3, sometimes with abortive anthers. Ovary 3-angled, 3-celled; styles 3. free or connate at the base; ovules 1 in each cell. Capsule triquetrous, dehiscing at the angles.
A small genus of 15 species, all confined to Australia except the following one.
1. L. Traversii, F. Muell. Fragm. viii. 79.—Rhizome stout, creeping, clothed with pale-chestnut scales; roots long, stringy. Stems stout, terete, polished, simple below, fastigiately branched above, 2–5 ft. high. Sheaths distant, closely appressed, acuminate, ¾–1 in. long. Inflorescence a rather narrow closely branched red-brown terminal panicle 2–5 in. long; branches erect, unequal; bracts under the branches rigid, lanceolate, acuminate. Flowers sessile or shortly pedicelled within lanceolate glumes rather longer than the perianth; 2 scarious bracteoles at the base of each flower. Perianth-segments in both sexes red-brown, lanceolate, acute; male flowers with a small rudimentary ovary, females with 3 slender staminodia. Anthers linear-oblong, minutely apiculate. Ripe fruit 1-celled, 1-seeded, obliquely ovoid, triquetrous with the angles thickened, tipped with the remains of the style, at length dehiscent along the angles.—Calorophus sp., Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 267. Sporadanthus Traversii, F. Muell. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. vii. (1875) 389; Kirk, ibid. x. App. 41.
North Island: Auckland—Swamps between Hamilton and Ohaupo, Middle Waikato district, T.F.C. Chatham Islands: Abundant in peaty swamps, Dieffenbach, H. H. Travers! Cockayne!
A very curious species. It differs from Lepyrodia in the 1-celled and 1-seeded fruit, and was consequently erected into a separate genus (Sporadanthus) by F. Mueller. In its other characters and in habit, however, it is altogether a Lepyrodia, and it appears best to consider it a species of that genus with the ovary 1-celled by abortion. I have not seen female flowers except old ones persistent with the fruit, and cannot say whether the ovary is 3-celled at an early stage, as seems probable.
2. LEPTOCARPUS, R. Br.
Stems simple or branched, terete, erect from a stout creeping scaly rhizome. Leaves reduced to persistent sheathing scales. Flowers diœcious, the spikelets with imbricate glumes with or without bracteoles, the male and female inflorescences alike or dissimilar, sometimes both sexes have the spikelets arranged in panicles, sometimes the male spikelets are pedicelled and paniculate, and the females sessile and fascicled or spicate. Male flowers: Perianth-segments 6. Stamens 3; filaments filiform; anthers 1-celled. Female flowers: Perianth as in the males. Staminodia 3 or none. Ovary 1-celled, triquetrous; styles 3, filiform; ovule solitary, pendulous. Fruit narrow-ovoid, triquetrous, indehiscent or splitting down the angles.
Species about 21, one in New Zealand, one in Chili, another in Cochin-China, 7 in South Africa, the remainder confined to Australia.
1. L. simplex, A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 142 (not of R. Br.).—Rhizome stout, creeping, clothed with chestnut-brown scales. Stems numerous, densely crowded, simple, slender, terete, rushlike, 1–5 ft. high. Sheaths closely appressed, blackish-brown, distant, 1½–4 in. apart. Male inflorescence panicled; panicles variable in size, sometimes long and slender, at other times short and contracted, alternate on the upper part of the stem. Spikelets numerous, sessile or pedicelled, red-brown, ¼–½ in. long, manyflowered. Glumes imbricate, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, mucii longer than the flowers. Perianth-segments 4–6, lanceolate, the 3 inner rather smaller. Female inflorescence compacted into rounded or oblong often lobed or interrupted fascicles or glomerules, alternate along the stem. Glumes broadly ovate, acuminate. Perianth rather longer than in the males; segments 6, the 3 outer keeled, acuminate; the 3 inner flat, oblong, obtuse or mucronate. Fruit narrow-ovoid, triquetrous.—A. Cunn. Precur. n. 291; Raoul, Choix, 40; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 265, t. 61; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 294. Restio simplex, Murr. Syst. Veg. v. 882; Forst. Prodr. n. 367.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island, Chatham Islands: Salt marshes and sandy shores, abundant. Also inland near hot springs at Rotorua and at Tokaanu (Lake Taupo). Oioi. September–December.
3. HYPOLÆNA, R. Br.
Stems slender, much branched, often flexuous. Leaves reduced to persistent sheathing scales. Flowers dioecious, in spikelets with imbricate glumes and no bracteoles; the male spikelets few- or many-flowered, rarely 1-flowered, solitary or 2 together along the branchlets, or several in a terminal panicle; the females 1-flowered, either solitary or 2–3 together near the tips of the branches. Male flowers: Perianth-segments 6, narrow, thin. Stamens 3; filaments filiform; anthers 1-celled. Female flowers: Perianth-segments 6, smaller than in the males, very thin, almost hyaline. Staminodia when present 3. Ovary 1-celled; style-branches 2 or 3, filiform; ovule solitary, pendulous. Fruit an ovoid or obovoid terete indehiscent 1-seeded nut.
A genus consisting of about 12 species natives of South Africa, and 5 found in Australia, one of the latter extending to New Zealand.
1. H. lateriflora, Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 238.—Stems slender, much branched, flexuose and often interlacing, usually from 9–18 in., but sometimes forming dense masses 2–3 ft. high. Sheaths ⅕–⅓ in. long, closely appressed, often ciliate at the mouth, with a short subulate spreading tip. Male spikelets 1 or 2 together in the upper sheaths, each spikelet 3–6-flowered; glumes rather ​thin, rigid, tip acute. Perianth-segments 6, very narrow-linear, acute. Stamens 3; anthers hnear-oblong. Female spikelets soHtary within the uppermost sheaths, 1–3-flowered. Perianth-segments 6 or 4, very small, the inner not much longer than the ovary, broadly ovate, thin and hyaline. Style-branches 3. Nut broadly ovoid, terete, with a thick and swollen base.—Calorophus elongatus, Lab. Pl. Nov. Holl. ii. 78, t. 228 (in part); Hook. f. Fl Nov. Zel. i. 267; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 297.
Var. minor, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 297.—Much smaller and more slender, sometimes only a few inches high. Male spikelet solitary, 2–3-flowered; female usually 1-flowered.—Calorophus minor, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 267.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island, Chatham Islands: The typical form not uncommon in lowland swamps in the North Island, from the North Cape southwards; var. minor abundant in mountain districts throughout. Sea-level to 4500 ft. November–March.
Also an abundant Australian and Tasmanian plant. The var. minor passes insensibly into the ordinary form.