Flora of New Zealand Series

catchfly

Taprooted annual. Stems simple or branching, (3)-15-45 cm tall; hairs long and eglandular below becoming mixed with sparse to dense short eglandular hairs above. Lvs hispid, with shorter hairs on margins, green, oblong to oblanceolate, subacute to obtuse; lower lvs cuneately tapered to petiole, 20-60 × 5-15 mm; upper lvs sessile, becoming lanceolate, acute, smaller. Infl. usually a single (1)-5-15-flowered spike-like monochasium, rarely of paired monochasia and then without a fl. in the axil between them, elongating at fruiting; pedicels 2-10 mm long; bracts linear, acute, green. Fls ⚥. Calyx with dense short glandular hairs and sparse long eglandular hairs, cylindric at flowering, ovoid at fruiting, 10-veined, 7-10 mm long; teeth linear, erect. Petals white, pink or red or red-spotted, entire or emarginate; claw not lobed; coronal scales oblong, subacute, 1.5 mm long. Styles 3, erect, 2 mm long. Capsule ovoid, c. = calyx, 7-10 mm long, dehiscing by 6 curved teeth; carpophore c. 0.5 mm long. Seeds dark brown, reniform with hollow faces and flat backs, ridged, c. 0.8 mm long.

N.: throughout; S.: Nelson, Marlborough, Canterbury, Westland, Otago; St.; K., Ch.

Mediterranean region, northwards to Denmark, Poland, and C. Russia 1854

Roadsides, waste land, railway ballast, dry pasture, arable land, gardens, riverbeds, sand dunes, rocky bluffs, lake shores.

Catchfly is very similar to S. disticha in its slender monochasia and small fls, but may be distinguished by its usually single monochasia or the absence of an axillary fl. if the monochasia are paired, the very short carpophore c. 0.5 mm long, and the flat backs to the seeds. The glandular infl. traps dust and small flies, hence the common name catchfly.

The sp. has also been referred to in N.Z. as S. anglica, S. anglica var. gallica, S. anglica var. quinquevulnera, S. gallica var. anglica, S. gallica var. quinquevulnera, S. gallica var. sylvestris, and S. quinquevulnera. S. quinquevulnera and the vars with that epithet refer to a common variant with red-spotted petals.