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long, mucronate; stamens 3, not exserted, anthers cream, staminal filaments reddish. Fmmle 
spikelets dark brown ageing to grey, fusiform, 5-8 mm long, 1.5 mm broad in 1 to 3 axillary 
or terminal dusters, 6-15 per duster; glumes lanceolate, acuminate, transparent with 
scarious margins 8—15 mm long, lower 1 or 2 sterile. Feynnle flowers 12 per spikelet; tepals 
8,0.9-1.2 mm long, purple, narrow-filamentous; style divided almost to base, stylar branches 
3, purple, 1.5 mm long. Fruit a turbinate nut 1.2 mm long, 0.1 mm broad. 
Flowering: Flowers in early summer as water levels in swamps recede. Seed-shed: 
late summer with seed dispersed by wind or water. Seedlings: dimorphic. When 
germinating above-ground 1-2 terete first seedling leaves are followed by adult-like 
culms with scale leaves. Seedlings establishing under water first develop a rosette of 
1-15 flattened juvenile leaves. This habit is retained until the seedling emerges above 
the receding water, at which stage adult-like erect culms are formed. 
Ecological features: L. crassipes is one of the few species of Leptocarpus in permanently 
inundated habitats. It is known only from permanent waterholes in swamps in the 
Kent River area between Denmark and Walpole. It is fire-resistant and contains high 
levels of starch in the rhizomes. 
Etymology: The species epithet is from the Latin crassus, fat and pes, a foot and 
refers to the swellings on the submerged culm bases where they attach to the rhizome. 
Affinities: The taxon shows close affinities to a range of the wetland south-western 
Australian Leptocarpus species, particularly L. scariosus, but is distinguished by the 
bulbous culm bases and unusually sparse inflorescences in comparison with 
cohabiting species. 
Conservation status: Since this species might be easily confused with closely related 
taxa, it may well be more widely distributed than present knowledge indicates. 
Apparent dependence on permanent water means that susceptibility to lowering 
water tables might endanger populations. 
Loxocarya albipes J. S. Pate & K. A. Meney, sp. nov. 
Planta dioica, caespitosa, rhizomate repenti, dense villoso, culmis teretibus sparse 
ramosis, striatis atque tuberculatis, vaginis caulinis adpressis, striatis, glabris, spiculis 
in glomerulis axillaribus vel solitariis. 
Type: South-western Western Australia, S.W. Botanical Province, Wongan Hills 
(30°51'S 116°43'E). In a single small gravel pit 15 km W of Wongan Hills. Pate & 
Meney KM 9304, 10 August 1993, (holotype KPBG; isotype PERTH). Growing in 
cappings of loose gravel over laterite. 
Habit: Plants dioecious, densely tufted with decumbent habit, approximately 
50-80 cm tall, clumps up to 1.5 m across. Rhizome shortly-creeping, superficial, red- 
brown, densely villous with continuous covering of white woolly hairs, weathering 
with age, 3.5-4.5 mm diameter; scale leaves widely-spaced, orange-brown, tightly 
appressed, 1-3 mm long; cataphylls red-brown, ribbed, 2 mm long. Culms terete, 
hollow at base, light green, 0.8-1.2 mm diameter, 30-70 cm long, mostly hidden by a 
dense covering of white hairs; branchlets semi-flattened; culm nodes more or less 
equidistant, up to 14 per culm; sheaths with scarious margins, red brown, flushed 
dark red-brown close to point of attachment to nodes, striate, 6-14 mm long, closely 
appressed, covered with resinous tubercles, sterile sheaths 5-10, spikelet-subtending 
sheaths 2-7 per culm; lamina present or absent, if present closely appressed, 1-3 mm 
long. Male spikelets in axillary clusters of 2-6, 8-30 per culm, linear-ovoid, 8-13 mm 
long, 2-4 mm wide; inflorescence bracts light brown with pronounced scarious 
margins; apex 5-7 mm wide, 1.5-2.5 mm long, tuberculate; glumes 2.5-3.5 mm long, 
linear lanceolate; mucro 1-1.5 mm long. Male flowers sessile to very shortly 
