382 
Telopea 9(2): 2001 
Illustrations: Fig. 2i, j. 
Distribution and habitat: Endemic in New Guinea (known only from the type from 
the Star Mountains). Said to be growing on the bank of a rivulet in tall grassland, 
where it was locally common. The culms were described on the label as being 'single 
flattened, sometimes twisted, culms from the rootstock.' 
Notes: Compared to the other species of section Juncotypus in New Guinea, this 
species is easily distinguished by its long, slender tepals and fine, much less prominent 
striations that are irregular along the length of the culms (in the other species, the 
striations are prominent and usually in a straight line along the length of the culms). 
It is apparently related to a Eurasian-American group of species (J. arcticus Willd., 
/. balticus Willd., etc.) rather than to the other New Guinean species or those of 
Australia and New Zealand. In that group it seems closest to the North American 
/. ater Rydb. from North America and ]. haenkei E. Mey. (found from northeastern Asia 
to Alaska and the NW coast of North America), and could even be conspecific with 
one of those species although its pith is rather denser than in those two taxa. 
Veldkamp considered that the whole population was possibly sterile (no capsules 
were seen by him), which may indicate a single, relatively recent introduction or 
possibly even a hybrid origin. Veldkamp (pers. comm.) regards this as most likely to 
be native there since that very remote area had had very few visitors from other parts 
of the world before his visit in 1975. There are various species in a range of other 
families with a similar disjunct distribution in high altitude regions in Malesia as well 
as in temperate eastern Asia or Australia, or in all three regions. One such example is 
/. sandwithii, which has its main distribution in higher altitude mountain areas of 
south-eastern mainland Australia and at various altitudes in Tasmania. Other 
examples include Carpha alpina R. Br. (Wilson 1986) and 21 species of Carex (Kern and 
Nooteboom 1979) in the family Cyperaceae, also grasses such as Anthoxanthum 
redolens Vahl (Schouten and Veldkamp (1985: 343) and Trisetum bifidum (Thunb.) Ohwi 
(Veldkamp and Van der Have 1983). 
Collection examined: PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Known only from the type collection. 
Juncus prismatocarpus and allied species in continental Asia and 
Malesia 
In revising the species of this genus in Australia, New Guinea and New Zealand, it 
was necessary to look at various taxa in Asia and Malesia that have been either 
confused with the Australasian /. prismatocarpus R. Br. or said to be allied to it. Many 
Flora treatments have used this name in a very broad sense, including Buchenau (1890, 
1906), Hooker (1892), Backer (1951), Makino (1964), Backer and Bakhuizen f. (1968), 
Larsen (1972), Harriman (1991) and Wu (1994), although others have recognised 
species such as J. leschenaultii and J. wallichianus as being separate from 
/. prismatocarpus. We reviewed all the Asian and Australasian septate species lacking 
seed-appendages that were covered under 'Junci septati’ by Buchenau (1906), plus 
other names that had been published subsequently in this group. The Australasian 
species will be covered in a separate paper. Here we summarise our (sometimes 
tentative) conclusions about the Asian and Malesian species, based on examination of 
the literature and of specimens in B, BM, BRI, CANB, K, L, MEL, NSW, P, TAI, TI and W. 
Careful study and comparison of morphological characters suggest that about 12 
septate-leaved species without appendages to the seeds should be recognised in Asia 
and Malesia (the number depends in part on further study of the variation in 
/. leschenaultii and J. wallichianus). The following synoptic key to these taxa indicates 
