A new species of Lepidosperma (Cyperaceae) allied to L. congestum of southern Australia

Abstract

<p>We investigated the limits of <i>Lepidosperma congestum</i> R.Br. and a putative new species of <i>Lepidosperma</i> Labill. from Victoria and South Australia. Phenetic analyses (flexible UPGMA agglomerative hierarchical fusion and semi-strong hybrid multidimensional scaling) were conducted on a dataset derived from morphological characters scored from herbarium material. The results of our analyses supported the recognition of a new species, which we describe here as <i>Lepidosperma hispidulum</i> G.T.Plunkett, J.J.Bruhl & K.L.Wilson. Our results clarified the differences among <i>L. congestum, L. laeve</i> R.Br. and <i>L. hispidulum</i>, the first two of which have often been misidentified. We also discuss the distribution, habitat and conservation status of <i>L. hispidulum.</i></p>