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  4. Isolepis cernua var. cernua

Isolepis cernua var. cernua

Jackson Head.<br>Photographer: Mike Thorsen, Date taken: 11/08/2013, 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>
Wainuioimata River mouth.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 26/12/2006, 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>
Wainuioimata River mouth.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 26/12/2006, 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>
Wainuioimata River mouth.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 26/12/2006, 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>
Wainuioimata River mouth.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 26/12/2006, 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>
Jackson Head, Fiordland.<br>Photographer: Mike Thorsen, Date taken: 05/11/2013, 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>
Coromandel.<br>Photographer: John Smith-Dodsworth, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
Coromandel.<br>Photographer: John Smith-Dodsworth, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
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Common name

slender clubrush

Synonyms

Isolepis pygmaea (Vahl) Kunth; Scirpus cernuus Vahl; Fimbristylis pygmaeum Vahl

Family

Cyperaceae

Authority

Isolepis cernua (Vahl) Roem. & Schult. var. cernua

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.

ISOCVC

Chromosome number

2n = 48

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. New Zealand. Almost cosmopolitan but apparently absent from S.E. Asia.

Habitat

Mostly coastal on damp sand, or peat within sand flats, dune slacks, fringing lagoons and slow flowing brackish water, on coastal rocks and boulder beaches. More rarely inland around lake margins, and in peat bogs (especially restiad bogs)

Features

Variable in size, in dense tufts or with a shortly branched ascending rhizome. Culms 20-200 mm long, usually c. 0.5 mm. diameter or less, but occasionally up to 1 mm diameter Leaves 1–4 or 0, ± = culms, or much < culms, c. 0.5 mm wide, or often reduced to shortly mucronate sheaths; sheaths dark red-purple at the base, lighter brown towards the truncate orifice. Inflorescence of 1–(2–3) spikelets; subtending bract ± = or usually slightly > spikelets, 3–25 mm long, setaceous or leaf-like, caducous. Spikelets 2.0–5.0 × 1.0–2.5 mm, elliptical, obtuse, almost white, or green, or with red-brown markings. Glumes 1–2 mm. long, broadly ovate, only slightly concave with keel not prominent, obtuse, green to very pale straw coloured, or with red-brown markings at the sides, margins entire, membranous, rounded towards the tip, or with the keel at tip of glume somewhat thickened and ± excurrent, lateral nerves conspicuous. Hypogynous bristles 0. Stamens 3, rarely 2 or 1 in occasional glumes. Style-branches 3. Nut us. slightly < 1 mm. long, but occasionally slightly > 1 mm., c.0.5 mm. wide, obovoid or occasionally elliptical-obovoid, plano-convex, or subtrigonous and obtusely angled at the back, rounded at the tip and sharply apiculate, red-brown or dark grey at maturity, minutely but very distinctly reticulate.

Similar taxa

An extremely variable species, I. cernua is generally easily recognised by its preference for coastal habitats (but it can occur well inland as well); leaves usually < culms; stamens mostly 3 per glume, trigonous red-brown or dark brown nut; and by the glume margins and nut with are rounded toward the apex.

Flowering

August - December (may be present throughout the year)

Fruiting

October - May (may be present throughout the year)

Life cycle

Nuts are dispersed by water and possibly granivory and attachment (Thorsen et al., 2009).

Propagation technique

Easily grown from fresh seed and by division of whole plants. Once established rather tolerant of a range of conditions but flourishes best in full sun in a permanently damp soil. An attractive pot plant.

Etymology

isolepis: From the Greek isos (equal) and lepis (scale)

cernua: Drooping

Attribution

Description from Moore and Edgar (1970).

References and further reading

Johnson, A. T. and Smith, H. A (1986). Plant Names Simplified: Their pronunciation, derivation and meaning. Landsman Bookshop Ltd: Buckenhill, UK.

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: 285-309

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