Loxocarya magna Meney & K.W.Dixon

Herb, perennial, dioecious, rhizomatous, forming large dense tussocks 0.5–1 m across; cluster roots present. Rhizome stout, to 15 cm long, 4–6 mm diam. Culms always or mostly not dimorphic, spaced to c. 2 cm apart on rhizomes, stout, erect, terete, 0.35–1.0 m long, 1.7–3.2 mm diam., striate, glabrous except for tufts of hairs in sheath axils; branches flexuose, floriferous; internodes 4–8 cm long. Sheaths 12–18 mm long, brown, glabrous; lamina erect, c. 2 mm long. Spathes lanceolate, rigid, c. 6 mm long with an awn 3 mm long. Male spikelets terminal and axillary on branches, ovoid, 3–5 mm long, c. 1.5 mm wide; glumes 7–13, ovate, 1.3–2.2 mm long, pale brown, glabrous, usually obtuse; mucro erect, terete, 0.4–0.9 mm long; lowest glume sterile. Female spikelets axillary, sessile or on short branches, 4–5 mm long, 3–5 mm wide, erect; glumes 1–3, all fertile, rigid, ovate, c. 4–7 mm long, brown, glabrous, striate; mucro rigid, erect, to 3 mm long. Male flowers: tepals 6, lanceolate, brown-hyaline; outer tepals 1.7–2.3 mm long; filaments 2.3–2.8 mm long; anthers 1.2–1.5 mm long, exserted. Female flowers: tepals 3 or 4: outer tepals 5.4–7.5 mm long, acute; inner tepals 4.0–5.2 mm long, obtuse; ovary 1-locular; style unbranched. Capsule c. 6 mm long, c. 3 mm wide. Seed obloid, furrowed abaxially, surface cells slightly convex, lobed, separated from adjoining cells by deep narrow crypts. Culm anatomy: chlorenchyma of 2 or 3 layers of short peg cells, interrupted by pillar cells and partial sclerenchyma ridges opposite outer vascular bundles, central cavity present.

Eucalypt woodland or restiad swamps, especially on sandy soil over laterite ironstone pavement; sites often covered by a perched watertable during winter and spring.