Machaerina acuta
(Labill.) J.KernSlender tufted perennial with long rhizome. Culms rigid, flat to biconvex, nodeless, ± striate, glabrous, smooth, 15–35 cm high, 0.8–1.5 mm diam. Leaves basal; blade flat to biconvex, shorter than to exceeding culms, 0.7–2.5 mm wide; sheath straw-coloured to pale red-brown, dull. Inflorescence oblong in outline, narrow, erect, 2–6(–14) cm long, c. 1 cm diam.; lowest involucral bract shorter than to exceeding inflorescence. Spikelets few, 1-flowered, 4.5–6 mm long; glumes 3 or 4, acute, red-brown, margins ciliate or glabrous; fertile glumes 4–5 mm long. Nut obovoid to ellipsoid, irregularly wrinkled to smooth or minutely reticulate or colliculate, minutely hispid at apex, ± shining, red-brown to black, 1.5–2.2 mm long, 1.0–1.3 mm diam. Flowers spring–summer.
LoM, Wim, GleP, VVP, GipP, OtP, WaP, Gold, CVU, GGr, DunT, EGL, EGU, WPro, HSF, OtR, Strz, MonT. All states except NT. Occurs on sandy soils in swamps and damp heaths.
The mature nuts are often held by their associated glume and the persistent stamen filaments. This also occurs in Machaerina gunnii and in Gahnia.
Wilson, K.L. (1994). Cyperaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 2, Ferns and Allied Plants, Conifers and Monocotyledons, pp. 238–356. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
Spinning
