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Volume IV (1988) - Flora of New Zealand Naturalised Pteridophytes, Gymnosperms, Dicotyledons
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Montia fontana L.

*M. fontana L., Sp. Pl.  87  (1753)

Annual or perennial. Stems slender, weak, decumbent, not rooting at nodes, (1)-5-50 cm long. Lvs opposite, spreading, linear-oblanceolate to obovate-spathulate, acute, (5)-10-20-(25) × (1)-2-5 mm, cuneately narrowed to slightly sheathing base. Fls axillary, solitary or in 2-3-(5)-flowered cymes. Bracts obovate-subulate, scarious, 1-2 mm long. Sepals suborbicular, 1.5-2 mm long. Petals greenish white, obovate, 2-3 mm long. Anthers introrse, white. Capsule globose, slightly > calyx. Seeds 3, ovoid, black with white aril, either smooth and shiny or tuberculate and dull, 0.9-1.4 mm long.

Key

1
seeds tuberculate all over, dull; fls usually in small cymes
* subsp. chondrosperma
Seeds smooth, shiny; fls usually solitary
subsp. fontana

FL Aug-Oct-(Nov) FT (Aug)-Sep-Nov-(Dec).

Two subsp., 1 native and 1 naturalised, are found in N.Z.

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