Carex colensoi Boott

In distinct light green patches of slender tufts from a long-creeping rhizome. Rhizome 2–3 mm. diam., woody, often much branched and knotted, with shoots spaced singly and evenly along it, 1–1.5 mm. diam. at base. Culms rather variable in height, 4–25–(45) cm. × c. 0.5 mm., trigonous, flaccid, glab.; basal sheaths cream, grey, or light brown. Lvs us. < culms, occ. = or > culms, 0.5–1.5 mm. wide, soft, grasslike, channelled, occ. almost flat, margins minutely serrulate just below trigonous tip. Infl. 1–1.5 cm. long, of 1–4 clustered, shortly-peduncled, chestnut-brown spikes, subtended by a green, filiform, lf-like bract, much > infl., with margins minutely serrulate. Spikes androgynous, 7–10 × (2)–4–5 mm., ovoid, male fls at the base. Glumes = or slightly > utricles, ovate, subacute, brown, with a broad green midrib and broad silver hyaline margins. Utricles 2.5–3.5 × 1.5–2 mm., plano-convex, occ. almost subtrigonous when mature, brown, shining, with nerves not distinct, margin of upper part finely scabrid; beak hardly developed, c. 0.5 mm. long; stipe c. 0.5 mm. long. Stigmas 2. Nut c. 1.5 mm. long, ± biconvex, elliptic-oblong to orbicular, brown with a distinct stipe c. 0.2 mm. long.