המועדפים של alanad

This is Fimbristylis velata R.Br. which is not on Nature Watch NZ and is missing from the 'external providers'

It is the name we are using in New Zealand for the species that had been called here F. squarrosa Vahl

(see http://nzflora.landcareresearch.co.nz/default.aspx?selected=NameDetails&TabNum=0&NameId=32D1F496-8F28-4DC7-BDB8-33C0BDB6D0F6 and http://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora_details.aspx?ID=257).

The images are pretty poor but they fill a gap and I have none better. The two shockers are mine and the goodish one is by the late Sir John Smith-Dodsworth (taken from the same site on the same day) who allowed me to use his images.

Fimbristylis was once regarded as seriously threatened in New Zealand till a chance discovery (kid you not) by my feelow Earth Science student colleagues and I in the former Garden Bar of the Hillcrest Tavern, Hamilton lead me to realise it was a locally common, 'weedy' species of the Waikato River Banks, associated non-peat lakes and also parts of Northland. A strict annual it appears about mid December and reaches its peak in February before drying off by late March. Its preferred habitat is muddy bare ground left by receding water levels, though around Taupo and Rotorua it grows in muddy ground within geothermal areas - and probably also in other Garden Bars in pubs.