Eleocharis pallens
S.T.Blake Pale Spike-rushPerennial with very short rhizome. Culms densely tufted, terete, longitudinally ribbed, to 50 cm high, 0.5–1.0 mm diam, grey green. Spikelet narrow-cylindric, mostly 1–2 cm long; glumes acute, faintly keeled, 3–3.5 mm long, often tinged red-brown; hypogynous bristles 7–10, flat, retrorsely scabrous, usually stout, shorter or longer than nut; stamens 3; anthers 1.1–2.7 mm long; style (2–)3-fid. Nut biconvex to plano-convex, with lateral angles ± acute and ribbed, broadly ovoid or suborbicular, 1.1–1.4 mm long, 0.9–1 mm diam., yellow-brown or sometimes dark brown, external cells minute; style-base variable, c. one-third as long as and one-third to three-quarters as wide as nut. Flowers spring–summer.
MuM, Wim, GleP, VVP, VRiv, MSB, RobP, MuF, WaP, Gold, NIS. All mainland states. Uncommon in Victoria, chiefly northern (rare near Melbourne at e.g. Derrimut, Eynesbury, Rockbank), occurring in seasonally wet situations such as floodways, usually on clayey soil.
The culms of this species have a unique glistening, reticulate cell-pattern (visible with a hand-lens) between the longitudinal ridges.
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.