Stellaria elatinoides Hook.f.
Type locality: "Hawkes Bay, Lake Rotoatara, etc. Colenso". Type: K, "169-1847, dry banks near Rotatara among grass, Sept. '45".
Slender decumbent glab. herb, c. 5 cm. tall. Stems often closely branched, rooted at lower nodes, ascending above. Lvs linear-oblong, subacute, 3-5 mm. long including the wide-winged petiole that is hardly distinct from the lamina, connate. Fls solitary, axillary, peduncles very short. Sepals 5, c. 3 mm. long, narrow-lanceolate, acuminate with pale membr. border; petals apparently lacking; stamens 5-(10); styles 3, capsule ovoid, about as long as sepals, 6-valved, many-seeded; seeds > 0·5 mm. diam., brown, rough-surfaced with well-developed rounded tubercles.
DIST.: N. Hawkes Bay, Colenso's collecting only. S. Ashburton, North and Central Otago. Bare places in grassland.
FL.- FT. 10-11.
No recent collection from N. is known. Plants from S. differ from the original description in having ovoid not globose capsules with 6-12 instead of 2-6 seeds.
