Flora of New Zealand Series

clammy gypsophila

Annual, with slender to ± stout taproot. Flowering stems erect, densely glandular-viscid, sparsely branched, 2-10-(15) cm tall. Lvs linear-subulate, subacute, glandular-viscid, green to reddish, (2.5)-7-15 × 0.5-1 mm; basal lvs in a tufted rosette. Infl. a monochasial or dichasial cyme with 5-10-(20) fls. Bracts leaflike, not scarious. Calyx cylindric to narrowly bell-shaped, glandular-viscid, 4-5 mm long, divided to c. 1/4 way; teeth triangular, subacute to acute with broad scarious margins. Petals white or pink, slightly > calyx, emarginate. Styles included, incurving. Capsule cylindric, c. = calyx. Seeds 0.7 × 0.5 mm, finely warty.

S.: Marlborough, Canterbury, Otago.

Australia 1855

Riverbeds, bare ground in tussock, lake shores, sand, dry slopes, depleted grassland, dry waste land.

Until Allan (1940), most authors treated G. australis as a native plant, usually under the name G. tubulosa (Jaub. et Spach) Boiss. (e.g., Kirk 1899, Cheeseman 1906, 1925). Allan (1940, 1961) treated it as naturalised.

Barkoudah, Y. I., Wentia 9: 1-203 (1962), showed G. australis to be a sp. distinct from G. tubulosa, and confined to Australia and N.Z. The sp. may be native, but is more likely an early introduction from Australia.