Anagallis arvensis L.
pimpernel
Annual; stems trailing or prostrate, (2)-5-40 cm long, sometimes mat-forming. Lvs sessile, (2)-5-25 × (1.5)-3-18 mm, ovate, elliptic, or elliptic-ovate, sometimes very broad-ovate, often indistinctly dotted with sessile black glands beneath; base rounded or subcordate; apex ± obtuse. Fls solitary; pedicels (0.5)-1-2 cm long. Calyx (3)-3.5-4.5 mm long; lobes lanceolate, acuminate; margins scarious. Corolla (2)-6-15 mm diam., orange, orange-red or deep blue, conspicuous; lobes c. 3-7 mm long, elliptic or obovate, entire or slightly crenulate with numerous minute red to black-tipped glandular hairs on margin. Stamens c. (1)-2 mm long; filaments much > anthers, ± purple except for white-hairy dilated base. Capsule (2.5)-3-5 mm diam., ± = calyx; style persistent. Seed 0.7- c. 1.4 mm long, reticulate, flattened on 1 side, convex and keeled on the other.
Key
FL Jan-Dec.
Poisonous (Connor 1977).
N.Z. material can be assigned to 2 subspp. and to 2 vars of one of these.
