Scleria novae-hollandiae Boeckeler

Boeckeler, J.O. (1875) Flora oder Allgemeine Botanischer Zeitung 58: 120. Type: Port Mackay. Nov. Holland. (Am. D.) .. Herb. Luerssen.

Slender annual with the stems 25-45 cm tall. Base of stems clothed in long hairy sheaths.

Leaves scabrid on the margins and main nerves in the upper third, 2-4 mm wide; sheaths smooth except the pubescent anterior side; contraligule short and rounded with narrow, membranous, ciliate margin.

Inflorescence narrow and elongate, consisting of a terminal panicle and 2-3 remote lateral ones, peduncles ca. exserted from the sheaths, 2-winged at the dilated top; primary bracts erect, overtopping the inflorescence. Spikelets with the nut-bearing ones bisexual; male spikelets shortly peduncled, narroly lanceolate and ca. 4 mm long; nut-bearing spikelets 4.5-5 mm long; glumes broadly ovate-lanceolate, mucronulate. Glumes with roundish keels and the sides streaked reddish brown. Cupula deeply 3-lobed and 1 mm wide. Disk triangular with rounded angles, hardly lobed; scar of cupula deeply 3-lobed.

Nut ellipsoid to oblong-ellipsoid, with nearly parallel sides, obtusely trigonous, truncate at the base, minutely umbonulate, glabrous dull white to light brown with darker brown markings, 2.25-2.75 mm long.

Features not available.

Occurs in WA, NT, CYP, NEQ, CEQ as far south as the NSW border. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 420 m. Grows in rainforest margins, Melaleuca swamp forest, various types of woodland, wooded grassland and on floodplains. Also from Micronesia, Malesia and New Guinea.