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  4. Bolboschoenus medianus

Bolboschoenus medianus

Coromandel, January.<br>Photographer: John Smith-Dodsworth, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
In cultivation ex Kawhia.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 19/10/2007, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0'>CC BY</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Miranda. November.<br>Photographer: John Smith-Dodsworth, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
Dorsal (left) and ventral (right) view of nuts.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 29/05/2010, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0'>CC BY</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
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Common name

purua grass

Synonyms

Scirpus medianus Cook

Family

Cyperaceae

Authority

Bolboschoenus medianus (Cook) Soják

Flora category

Vascular – Native

Endemic taxon

No

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.

BOLMED

Current conservation status

  • Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2017

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). This report includes a statistical summary and brief notes on changes since 2012 and replaces all previous NZTCS lists for vascular plants. Authors: By 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.

2012 | Not Threatened

Previous conservation statuses

2009 | Not Threatened

2004 | Not Threatened

Distribution

Indigenous

Habitat

Coastal to lowland in saltmarshes and other poorly drained saline areas, occasionally found along freshwater rivers and lakes. Sometimes invades pasture abutting tidal streams and estuaries.

Features

Summer-green, bulbous perennial forming mostly densely clumped patches. Rhizome 3-5 mm diameter, woody, horizontal, long-creeping, dark brown, apices terminated by globose, ligneous tubers. Culms 1(-2) per tuber, 0.7-1.5 m tall, 4-5 mm diameter, triquetrous, striated, smooth except just below inflorescence where scabrid on angles; basal sheaths loose, membranous, septate, brown. Leaves numerous, more or less equal to, or greater than culms, 450-500 x 6-8 mm, double-folded but flattened, grass-like, tapering, coriaceous, margins and midrib scabrid towards apices; sheaths long, closed, coriaceous. Inflorescence a terminal, compound, irregular umbel; rays 4-6, unequal, 20-100 mm long, bearing clusters of 1-6 spikelets, a sessile glomerule of spikelets at the base of the rays; involucral subtending bracts similar to leaves, greater than inflorescence, unequal, 150-250 x 3-6 mm, as many as, or 1-2 fewer than rays. Spikelets 10-20 mm long, ovoid, or more or less cylindric, dull red-brown. Glumes membranous, pubescent, apices cleft or lacerate, with a scabrid, recurved awn. Hypogynous bristles up to 6, in length < nut, persistent or shedding, red-brown, retrorsely scabrid. Stamens 3. Style-branches 2-3. Nut 3.0-4.0 x 2.0-2.5 mm, obovate, dorsiventrally compressed and plano-convex or trigonous with obtuse dorsal angle and convex sides, apiculate, maturing greyish to black and glossy.

Similar taxa

Distinguished from the other two indigenous species, B. caldwellii caldwellii (Cook.) Soják and B. fluviatilis (Torr.) Soják by the nuts with are compressed rather than trigonous (as in B. fluviatilis) and with convex rather than depressed (concave) sides (as in B. caldwellii) and by the 2-3 style branches, rather than consistently 2 in B. caldwellii or mostly 3 in B. fluviatilis.

Flowering

October - January

Fruiting

December - May

Life cycle

Bristly nuts are dispersed by water and possibly wind (Thorsen et al., 2009).

Propagation technique

Easily grown from fresh seed and rooted pieces. Will grow in almost any soil but prefers a sunny, damp soil. Ideal as a pond plant or for planting along tidal streams.

Etymology

bolboschoenus: From Greek: bolbos (swelling or bulb) and schoinos (rush, reed), from the supposed difference from the genus Schoenus in having bulbous tubers

Where To Buy

Not commercially available

Cultural Use/Importance

In the Waikato this species is abundant along the tidal stretches of the Piako and Waitoa Rivers of Hauraki Plains, the Waikato River (to about Taupiri) and also around the larger lakes of the Huntly Basin.

Attribution

Description adapted from Moore and Edgar (1970)

References and further reading

Moore, L.B.; Edgar, E. 1970: Flora of New Zealand. Vol. I. Government Printer, Wellington.

Thorsen, M. J.; Dickinson, K. J. M.; Seddon, P. J. 2009. Seed dispersal systems in the New Zealand flora. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 2009 Vol. 11 No. 4 pp. 285-309

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