Flora of New Zealand Series

Ward's weed

Taprooted annual herb. Stems erect or ascending, branching, 10-30 cm tall, bearing short stiff reflexed hairs. Lvs glabrous above, hairy along veins beneath, 1-2-pinnatifid with linear obtuse segments. Racemes erect, up to 15 cm long, with deflexed hairs especially below. Pedicels erect at flowering, recurved at fruiting, 1-4 mm long. Sepals linear-oblong, glabrous, 3-4 × 0.5-0.8 mm. Petals spathulate, erect, 6-8 × 1-1.5 mm. Silicle 6-seeded, 6-7 × 3-4 mm; fertile portion globose to elliptic; valves 3-veined, with hairs along veins; beak flattened, elliptic, = or > valves.

S.: Christchurch, a casual occurrence in several city railway yards in 1959 but apparently not establishing.

Mediterranean, S.W. Asia 1959

The sp. was introduced as an impurity in Australian wheat.