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  4. Carex fretalis

Carex fretalis

Cultivated specimen, ex Te Waewae Bay, Soutland.<br>Photographer: Mike Thorsen, Date taken: 02/01/2017, Licence: All rights reserved. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Waituna, Southland.<br>Photographer: Rowan Hindmarsh-Walls, Date taken: 05/06/2016, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Waituna, Southland.<br>Photographer: Rowan Hindmarsh-Walls, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Waituna, Southland.<br>Photographer: Rowan Hindmarsh-Walls, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Waituna, Southland.<br>Photographer: Rowan Hindmarsh-Walls, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Waituna, Southland.<br>Photographer: Rowan Hindmarsh-Walls, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Waituna, Southland.<br>Photographer: Rowan Hindmarsh-Walls, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>. <a class='member-message' href='/nzpcn/why-join-nzpcn/' target='_blank'>Members can view a larger version of this image.</a>
Waituna, Southland.<br>Photographer: Rowan Hindmarsh-Walls, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</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

curly sedge

Synonyms

None

Family

Cyperaceae

Authority

Carex fretalis Hamlin

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.

CARFRE

Chromosome number

2n = c.60-64

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.

2018 | At Risk – Declining

Previous conservation statuses

2012 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: Sp

2009 | At Risk – Naturally Uncommon | Qualifiers: DP

2004 | Range Restricted

Distribution

Endemic. South Island, Southland (Foveaux Strait area, Bluff Hill, Centre Island) and Stewart Island.

Naturalised in Tasmania (where it is erroneously known as C. comans Bergg.).

Habitat

A coastal species of relatively, exposed, open, damp, peaty ground, often overlying beach gravels. At Bluff Hill it has invaded surrounding pasture and is locally common along the track sides leading to the summit. On Stewart Island it often grows along tracks sides within the coastal portions of their routes, and is said to spread aggressively following fires or in heavily grazed areas.

Features

Stiffly erect, tufted light yellow-green sedge with distinctly much curled and twisted leaf apices. Culms 100-150 x 0.5 mm, terete, glabrous, often elongating at maturity and becomign somewhat pendant toward the apex; basal sheaths light brown. Leaves more or less equal, or somewhat > culms, 1 mm wide, plano-convex, margins scabrid towards the very strongly cirrhose apex. Spikes 4-7; single terminal male spike rather slender; remaining spikes female, 10-25 x 4-5 mm, more or less oblong, more or less distant, erect, the uppermost sessile or shortly pedunculate, the lowest on a slender, pendant peduncle up to 10 mm long. Glumes (excluding awn) usually slightly < or equal to utricles, ovate-acuminate, hyaline though closely dotted with red brown striae, the cream midrib thickened and prolonged to an awn as long as glume or longer. Utricles 3.5 x 1 mm, plano-convex, ovoid, turgid, buff brown to tawny-yellow or tan, usually with distinctly paler nerves; scarcely narrowed to a glabrous beak, crura conspicuous, sometimes scabrid on margins; stipe relatively thick, 0.5 mm long, pale brown. Stigmas 3. Nut 1.5 mm, dark grey, trigonous, oblong-obovoid.

Similar taxa

Very closely related to Carex comans Bergg., from which it differs by the usually pale yellow-green leaves with strongly curled (cirrhose) apices, and light brown, never purple-brown basal sheaths. The inflorescence tends to be shorter and more stiffly erect and the spikes fewer, broader and with larger, usually glabrous utricles, which have a scarcely narrowed, usually glabrous beak rather than the distinct, and very scabrid beak seen in C. comans.

Flowering

October - December

Fruiting

October - August

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. It is this species which is the original Carex comans cv. Frosted Curls popular in cultivation, which was first discovered by Terry Hatch of Joy Plants, Pukekohe on Bluff Hill and mistakenly assigned to C. comans Bergg. However, over the last decade much of what is sold as cv. Frosted Curls is now, ironically, the green form of C. comans s.s. Carex fretalis does well in cultivation in a moist, free draining sunn situation or in semi-shade. It is naturalised in Tasmania.

Threats

Not Threatened. Carex fretalis is perhaps least common in the Southland part of its range but it is abundant over large parts of Stewart Island. There is no documented evidence of decline, and the species is listed as At Risk only because of its naturally restricted area of occupancy.

Etymology

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

fretalis: Belonging to a strait

Attribution

Fact sheet prepared for NZPCN by P.J. de Lange (8 September 2006). Description adapted from Moore & 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 11(4): 285-309.

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