Flora of New Zealand Series

Small, very slender, perennial herb forming small to large and extensive, loose mats; stems decumbent, creeping, rooting at nodes, ascending to c. 2 cm high, much-branched. Lvs connate at base, 1.5-5.5 × 0.8-1.7 mm, 0.4-0.7 mm thick, linear-elliptic, narrowly oblong-elliptic, elliptic or obovate-elliptic, flattened above, convex beneath; apex obtuse, subacute, or ± apiculate. Fls solitary in lf axils, star-like, 4-merous, 2.8-3 mm diam.; pedicels usually 0.5-0.8 mm long, elongating little at fruiting. Calyx lobes 0.6-0.9 × c. 0.5 mm, triangular-ovate, obtuse to acute. Petals 1.4-2 × 0.8-1 mm, broadly ovate or elliptic-ovate, white, sometimes greenish or pinkish tipped, subacute, much > calyx. Scales c. 0.6 mm long, linear-spathulate. Follicles smooth. Seed 0.5-0.7 mm long.

N.: Lake Onoke (Wairarapa), Wellington, southern coastal areas; S.: Farewell Spit (Nelson), Barrytown and Cook R. (Westland), Sandy Point and Waituna Lagoon (Southland); St.

Endemic.

Coastal lagoons, salt marshes, wet ground amongst rocks, wet cliff faces, banks of tidal streams, sometimes submerged.

FL Oct-Jan.

This sp. was treated as Tillaea kirkii Allan by Allan (1961).