South Island: Nelson—Dun Mountain, T.F.C.; Aorere Valley and Ngakawau, Kirk; Westport, Townson! Westland—Between Hokitika and Ross, Marsden, near Greymouth, Kirk! Sea-level to 2500 ft.
Distinguished from G. setifolia by the usually smaller size, erect rigid panicle, longer and more acuminate subequal glumes, and more obovoid nut. The erect compact panicle, subequal glumes, and small nut separate it from the following species.
3. G. pauciflora, T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. i. ed. 2 (1871) 94.—Stems slender, sparingly leafy, 2–3 ft. high, rarely more. Leaves equalling the stems, narrow, with scabrid cutting edges and long filiform points. Panicle long, lax but narrow, 1½–3 ft. long; branches distant, slender; bracts long, leafy. Spikelets loosely scattered on the branches of the panicle, not crowded, sessile or shortly pedicelled, brownish-black, ⅕–¼ in. long, 2-flowered; lower flower male, upper hermaphrodite and fruit-bearing. Glumes usually 8; the 5 lower ones empty, gradually increasing in size, ovate, acute or acuminate; the 3 upper small at first, but enlarging in fruit, deeply concave, appressed to the nut, obtuse. Stamens 4–5 to each flower; filaments greatly elongated in fruit. Style-branches 3–4. Nut large, ⅕–¼ in. long, elliptic-ovoid, acute at both ends, smooth and shining, often grooved on the inner face, red-brown with a dark tip, transversely grooved within.—G. Hectori, Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. ix. (1877) 551.
North and South Islands: From the North Cape southwards to Marlborough, Nelson, and Westland, plentiful. Sea-level to 3000 ft. October–December.
A well-marked species, at, once recognised by the slender elongated panicle, with lax distant branches; the numerous empty glumes, the lower of which are unusually small; and the large red-brown nut.
4. G. xanthocarpa, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 306.—Stems numerous, stout, often as thick as the finger, densely tufted, leafy, 5–12 ft. high, forming huge clumps in forests. Leaves numerous, very long, ½ in. broad or more, involute, scabrid on the margins and veins, upper part produced into long filiform points. Panicle very large, 2–5 ft. long, drooping, excessively branched; branches long, slender, pendulous, 9–18 in. long or even more; bracts long, leafy. Spikelets innumerable, densely crowded, brown, ⅕–¼ in. long, 2-flowered; lower flower male, upper flower hermaphrodite and fruit-bearing. Glumes 6–7; the 3–4 outer empty, not very different in length, ovate, shortly acuminate; the 3 upper smaller, deeply concave, obtuse. Stamens usually 4 to each flower; filaments lengthening much in fruit. Style-branches 3–4. Nut large, ⅕–¼ in. long, elliptic-oblong or -obovoid, acute at both ends, smooth and shining, sometimes indistinctly grooved, black when fully ripe, yellowish when immature, transversely grooved within.—Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 418. G. ebenocarpa, Hook. f. ex Kirk in Trans.
