Carex cremnicola
Common name
sedge
Synonyms
None (first described in 2007)
Family
Cyperaceae
Flora category
Vascular – Native
Endemic taxon
Yes
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Sedges
NVS code
The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.
CARCRE
Chromosome number
2n = c.60
Current conservation status
The conservation status of all known New Zealand vascular plant taxa at the rank of species and below were reassessed in 2017 using the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS) – more information about this can be found on the NZTCS website. This report includes a statistical summary and brief notes on changes since 2012 and replaces all previous NZTCS lists for vascular plants.
Please note, threat classifications are often suggested by authors when publications fall between NZTCS assessment periods – an interim threat classification status has not been assessed by the NZTCS panel.
- Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2017 . 2018. Peter J. de Lange, Jeremy R. Rolfe, John W. Barkla, Shannel P. Courtney, Paul D. Champion, Leon R. Perrie, Sarah M. Beadel, Kerry A. Ford, Ilse Breitwieser, Ines Schönberger, Rowan Hindmarsh-Walls, Peter B. Heenan and Kate Ladley. Department of Conservation. Source: NZTCS and licensed by DOC for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
2017 | Threatened – Nationally Vulnerable | Qualifiers: DP, RR, Sp
Previous conservation statuses
2012 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: RR, Sp
2008 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: RR, Sp
2004 | Sparse
Distribution
.Endemic. New Zealand: South Island. North-West Nelson from Takaka Hill southward to the northern slopes of Mt Arthur.
Habitat
Lowland to alpine on marble and derived substrates. Carex cremnicola is commonly found in open forest and shrubland growing in cracks, clefts, and hollows in karst terrain, at the bases of cliffs, on ledges, and in cracks of sinkhole walls. On Mt Arthur C. cremnicola reaches the penalpine zone and can be found in low shrubland in karst terrain and occasionally in rubble in tussock grassland.
Detailed description
Perennial herb, caespitose, tufts rigid, erect to spreading, often surrounded by persistent dead leaves. Culms 130–1280 × 1.0–2.5 mm, spreading, trigonous, edges smooth, sometimes faintly scabrid on one edge becoming harsher distally, longer than leaves when mature. Leaves 145–795 × 2.0–6.0 mm; leaf sheaths brown, nerves distinct; leaf blades weakly double-folded or channelled, yellow-green to green; leaf margins harshly scabrid; keel and adaxial secondary veins scabrid towards apex; apex trigonous, scabrid, acuminate. Inflorescence of (3)–4–7–(8) male, androgynous, and female spikes; spikes usually borne singly at nodes, occasionally female and male spikes compound; spikes terminally congested, sessile and erect, becoming more distant, peduncled and drooping below (in high altitude plants sometimes all sessile and erect); male spikes 12–86 × 1.0–3.0 mm, linear or clavate, cylindrical, brown, forming a congested terminal cluster of 2–5 spikes, including often small male spikes subtending larger male spikes; usually 1 or 2 androgynous spikes below the terminal male cluster; remaining lower spikes female 8.0–70 × 1.5–6.0 mm, oblong, occasionally clavate, cylindrical, red-brown. Lowermost inflorescence bract leaf-like (62)–200–450–(530) × 1.5–5.0 mm, longer than inflorescence. Male glumes 3.12–5.12 × 1.08–2.2 mm, red to red-brown, obovate-oblong, concavo-convex, subcoriaceous, mid-region 3-veined, green fading to white at maturity; margins membranous, but scabrid towards apex; apex entire or emarginate with a scabrid awn. Female glumes 2.0–4.3 × 0.9–1.8 mm, those with awns longer than or subequal to utricles (those without awns usually shorter than utricles), red-brown (flecked), ovate, concavo-convex, subcoriaceous, mid-region 3-veined, green fading to white; margins membranous but scabrid near apex; apex entire or emarginate with a prominent scabrid awn up to 1.2 mm long. Stamens 3, anthers 2.2–3.5 mm long. Utricles 2.0–3.5 × 0.8–2.0 mm, spreading at maturity, ovoid, elliptic or sometimes fusiform, trigonous, red to black above and white to yellow below, nerved on both abaxial and adaxial surfaces; stipe pale, tapered; beak prominent 0.3–1.0 mm long, narrowing to a bidentate apex with long scabrid crura; orifice scabrid and weakly oblique. Stigmas 3, 1.8–3.6 mm long. Achenes 1.0–2.0 × 0.8–1.3 mm, obovate or angled-obovate, trigonous, brown.
Similar taxa
Carex cremnicola is similar to C. spinirostris Colenso but differs in a number of inflorescence and vegetative characters, especially features of the utricle The sheaths of C. cremnicola are brown rather than red, and the utricles are 2.0–3.5 × 0.8–2.0 mm, oblong or club-shaped, dark red, trigonous, elliptic sometimes fusiform, abruptly narrowed to a beak rather than 3.2–4.2 × 1.0–1.2 mm, linear, green to brown, sometimes red, triquetrous, fusiform, with a long tapering beak. Both species are allopatric.
Flowering
November
Fruiting
January–March
Life cycle
Nuts surrounded by inflated utricles are dispersed by granivory and wind (Thorsen et al., 2009).
Propagation technique
Easily grown from fresh seed and by the division of established plants. Does best in a permanently damp, lime enriched soil in partial shade.
Threats
Carex cremnicola is biologically sparse over its entire range and its habitat has been degraded by goats.
Etymology
carex: Latin name for a species of sedge, now applied to the whole group.
Where To Buy
Not Commercially Available
Attribution
Fact Sheet by P.J. de Lange (1 January 2008). Description based on Ford (2007)
References and further reading
Ford KA. 2007. Carex (Cyperaceae) – two new species from the calcareous mountains of North-West Nelson, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 45(4): 721–730. https://doi.org/10.1080/00288250709509747
Thorsen MJ, Dickinson KJM, Seddon PJ. 2009. Seed dispersal systems in the New Zealand flora. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 11: 285–309.
NZPCN Fact Sheet citation
Please cite as: de Lange, P.J. (Year at time of access): Carex cremnicola Fact Sheet (content continuously updated). New Zealand Plant Conservation Network. https://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora/species/carex-cremnicola/ (Date website was queried)