Schoenus tendo
Common name
kauri sedge, kauri schoenus
Synonyms
Chaetospora tendo Banks et Sol. ex Hook.f.
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.
SCHTEN
Chromosome number
2n = 70
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). 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. North Island from North Cape to about the southern Waikato, near Awakino and the Bay of Plenty.
Habitat
Coastal to lowland. Mostly in gumland or tea tree scrub and in regenerating kauri (Agathis australis (D.Don) Lindl.) forest. Sometimes persistent on clay hills coverted to pasture. Rarely colonising the margins of peat bogs.
Features
Rush-like sedge up to 1 m tall. Rhizome short, hard, lignaceous, up to 4 mm diameter, loosely covered in brown or greyish-brown bracts. Culms densely crowded, erect or drooping (often forming dense tangles), 0.4-1.2m long, c.1 mm diameter, light green to dark green, glossy. Leaves reduced to sheathing mucronate bracts, dark red-purple, almost black, the mucro more elongated in the uppermost bracts; mouth of sheath fringed by cobwebby hairs. Panicle 15-120 mm long, very narrow, with more or less distant fascicles of 3-4 branchlets, each fascicle subtended by a sheath 0.5-1.5 mm long, ciliate at the mouth; branchlets flexuous, laterally compressed and toothed along edges, each bearing a solitary spikelet or branched again. Spikelets 5-8 mm long, 2-4-flowered, linear-lanceolate, dark brown to almost black. Glumes 10-13, ovate lanceolate acute, margins ciliate towards the apex with tangled woolly hairs, the lower 6-8 glumes shorter, empty, 2-4 succeeding glumes fertile, the 2 upper glumes empty. Hypogynous bristles 3-6, thread-like, less than or greater than nut. Stamens 2. Style-branches 2(-3). Nut 1.5 x 1.0 mm, pale cream or light brown, unequally biconvex, obovoid, obtuse to retuse, surface smooth.
Similar taxa
Easily recognised by the large often drooping green culms, sheaths fringed with cobwebby hairs, and preference for poorly drained clay soils (usually in gumland scrub) or under kauri. It could only be confused with S. carsei which is confined to acidic peat bogs and lake margins, has yellow-green to orange-green culms, and whose sheaths lack the distinctive cobwebby orifices diagnostic of S. tendo. Schoenus tendo also differs from S. carsei by having mostly 2 rather than 3 style-branches.
Flowering
September - January
Fruiting
October - July
Propagation technique
Difficult. Can be grown from the division of whole plants and fresh seed but resents root disturbance. Best in a permanently damp, somewhat acidic soil in full sun.
Etymology
schoenus: Rush
Where To Buy
Not commercially available.
Attribution
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.