Empodisma minus
species of plant
Empodisma minus, commonly known as (lesser) wire rush or spreading rope-rush, is an Australian perennial evergreen belonging to the southern-hemisphere family of monocotyledonous plants Restionaceae. The Latin name Empodisma minus translates to “tangle-foot” “small”. E. minus is found from Queensland to South Australia, Tasmania and throughout New Zealand south of 38 ° latitude, or the central north island. Its current conservation status is “Least concern”. In 2012, the new species Empodisma robustum was described in New Zealand, with what was previously described as E. minus from the lowland raised bogs of Waikato and Northland now being re-classified as E. robustum. E. minus remains an important peatformer in the south of New Zealand and in high altitude peatlands.
Description
The stems are 15–200 cm long, numerously branched, semi-terete and dark green to dark brown in colour. The stem keeps upright when short, yet becomes procumbent when tall. The stem has 5.5–12 mm long sheaths that seemingly divide it to multiple segments. The sheaths are reduced leaves which keep close to the stem and have whitish axillary hairs.
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This entry incorporates text from “Empodisma minus” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.