Species

Gaimardia setacea

Etymology

Gaimardia: after Gaimard
setacea: bristly

Common Name(s)

Gaimardia

Current Conservation Status

2012 - Not Threatened

Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2012
The conservation status of all known New Zealand vascular plant taxa at the rank of species and below were reassessed in 2012 using the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS). This report includes a statistical summary and brief notes on changes since 2009 and replaces all previous NZTCS lists for vascular plants. Authors: Peter J. de Lange, Jeremy R. Rolfe, Paul D. Champion, Shannel P. Courtney, Peter B. Heenan, John W. Barkla, Ewen K. Cameron, David A. Norton and Rodney A. Hitchmough. File size: 792KB

Previous Conservation Status

2009 - Not Threatened
2004 - Not Threatened

Authority

Gaimardia setacea Hook.f.

Family

Restionaceae

Flora Category

Vascular - Native

NVS Species Code

GAISET

The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.

Structural Class

Monocotyledonous Herbs

Synonyms

None

Distribution

Indigenous. New Zealand: South and Stewart Islands. Also in New Guinea and Tasmania.

Habitat

In the South Island strictly montane to alpine., in bogs. On Stewart Island in similar sites but at lower altitudes as well as alpine.

Features

Compact, dark brown, occasionally glaucescent herb forming cushions up to 900 mm across. Roots fibrous. Stems 20–80 mm long, erect, wiry. Leaves 5–20 mm long, << 0.5 mm wide, distichous, very stiff erect to erecto-patent, glabrous, linear-setaceous, tapering to a long acicular tip; sheath almost = lamina in length, glabrous, lustrous, brown, produced at the tip into a ligule. Flowering stems > leaves, naked, terminated by 2–3 alternate glume-like, minutely papillate bracts; each bract enclosing 1 pseudanthium only, the third or uppermost bract sterile; hyaline scales 0. Male 2 in each pseudanthium. Female, 2 in each pseudanthium, styles not connate; occasionally with one ovary aborting. Fruit slightly > 0.5 mm. long, oblong-ovoid, surface faintly and irregularly reticulate

Similar Taxa

Distinguished from Centrolepis Labill. by have two male flowers per pseudanthium; two fused and collateral female flowers; two-three, distinctly alternate, glume-like floral bracts and opaque, light-brown leaf-sheaths.

Flowering

November – January

Fruiting

January – March

Propagation Technique

Difficult. Should not be removed from the wild.

Threats

Not Threatened

Endemic Taxon

No

Endemic Genus

No

Endemic Family

No

Life Cycle and Dispersal

Seeds are dispersed by water (Thorsen et al., 2009).

Where To Buy

Not Commercially Available.

Attribution

Description adapted from Moore and Edgar (1970)

References and further reading

Moore, L.B.; Edgar, E. 1970: Flora of New Zealand. Vol. II. Government Printer, Wellington.

Thorsen, M. J.; Dickinson, K. J. M.; Seddon, P. J. 2009. Seed dispersal systems in the New Zealand flora. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 11: 285-309

This page last updated on 24 May 2016