Citation: Ewart, Proc. R. Soc. Vic. 28:219 (1916).

Synonymy: Xerotes micrantha Endl. in Lehm., Pl. Preiss. 2:49 (1846).

Common name: Small-flower mat-rush.

Description:
Leaves filiform or terete, 20-80 cm long, hard and stiff, smooth, plano-convex or slightly channelled, 1-2.5 mm broad, with brown or black basal sheaths.

Male flowers spreading or drooping, on pedicels 1.5-3 mm long, with an ovate acuminate bract about as long as the pedicel, forming a loose panicle 10-20 cm long, with slender spreading branches 3-7 cm long, bearing flowers 3-8 mm apart, solitary or 2 or 3 close together; perianth-segments 2-2.5 mm long, free, rather thin, all equal, ovate-obtuse, spreading, splashed with short dark-purple streaks, finally becoming pale; anthers white, rhachis of the panicle terete or often angled, minutely tuberculate; female flowers similar, but the panicle usually narrower and shorter, with a few or many branches in the lower part, or rarely reduced to a raceme, the long upper part racemose, the perianth becoming rigid and brown, 3-4 mm long, campanulate, umbilicate at the base, the outer segments sometimes appearing subacute, the pedicels curved, 1-4 mm long, the flowers solitary or 2-4 close together.

Capsule globular or ovoid, c. 5 mm long, smooth, greenish, with the spreading perianth-segments at its base; seeds compressed-oblong, 3-4 mm long.

Distribution:    All mainland States except the N.T. and Qld. Conservation status: native Flowering time: May — Dec.

SA Distribution Map based on current data relating to specimens held in the State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: No text

Author: Not yet available