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  4. Carex forsteri

Carex forsteri

Porirua Scenic Reserve.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 24/12/2006, 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>
Spikelet. Porirua Scenic Reserve.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 24/12/2006, 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>
Porirua Scenic Reserve.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, 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>
Double-folded leaf. Porirua Scenic Reserve.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 24/12/2006, 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>
Naenae, Lower Hutt.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 27/01/2008, 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>
Naenae, Lower Hutt.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 27/01/2008, 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>
Naenae, Lower Hutt.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 27/01/2008, 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>
Naenae, Lower Hutt.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 27/01/2008, 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>
Naenae, Lower Hutt.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 31/01/2008, 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>
Kuaeranga Valley.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 31/10/2007, 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>
Kuaeranga Valley.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 31/10/2007, 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>
Kuaeranga Valley.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 31/10/2007, 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>
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Common name

Forster’s sedge

Synonyms

Carex recurva Schkuhr; Carex punctulata A.Rich.; Carex semiforsteri C.B.Clarke

Family

Cyperaceae

Authority

Carex forsteri Wahl.

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.

CARFOR

Chromosome number

2n = 60

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

Endemic. New Zealand: North and South Islands. In the North Island common south of Auckland, in the South Island common in Marlborough Sounds and on Banks Peninsula, otherwise sporadic in its occurrences and not recorded from Westland or Fiordland.

Habitat

Coastal to montane (rarely subalpine). Usually in dense forest within high rainfall areas where it grows in wet seepages, depressions and along stream banks. A common species of karst country where it is often very conspicuous around sinkholes (tomo) and at cave entrances. Occasionally found around seepages in tall tussock grassland

Features

Large leafy tufts. Culms up to 0.9 m tall, 1.0-2.5 mm diameter, trigonous, smooth or occasionally slightly scabrid below inflorescence; basal sheaths dark red-brown. Leaves much > culms, up to 1.2 m long, 3-12 mm wide, double-folded, keel and margins scabrid. Inflorescence of 4-8 spikes; terminal 1-3 spikes wholly or partly male; remaining spikes female with some male flowers at the base, 25-110 × 5-11 mm, ± distant, ± pedunculate, lowest peduncles often long and slender and spikes drooping, green to grey-green. Glumes 2–5 mm. long, lanceolate, gradually tapering to a scabrid awn, membranous, light brown, with a narrow green midrib. Utricles = or slightly > glumes, 4-5 × c.1 mm, subtrigonous, lanceolate, slightly reflexed, turgid towards the base, distinctly many-nerved, greenish brown, gradually tapering to a beak 1.5-2.0 mm long with an oblique, bifid, scabrid orifice. Stigmas 3. Nut 1.5-2.0 mm long, trigonous, elliptic-obovoid, cream to dark brown

Similar taxa

Easily distinguished from other wide-leaved carices by the absence of cross-veinlets, and long pedunculate spikes whose utricles have an oblique orifice of the utricle. Most likely to be confused with C. cockayneana (see under that species)

Flowering

September - November

Fruiting

October - May

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. Excellent for a permanently damp situation in a shaded site where it does best planted within a rich soil.

Etymology

carex: Latin name for a species of sedge, now applied to the whole group.

Attribution

Fact Sheet prepared by P.J. de Lange (10 August 2006). Description adapted from Moore and Edgar (1970)

References and further reading

Moore, L.B.; Edgar, E. 1970: Flora of New Zealand. Vol. II. 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

NZPCN Fact Sheet citation

Please cite as: de Lange, P.J. (Year at time of access): Carex forsteri Fact Sheet (content continuously updated). New Zealand Plant Conservation Network. https://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora/species/carex-forsteri/ (Date website was queried)

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