Flora of New Zealand Series

Low herb 1-36 cm tall, usually much-branched, with numerous basal leafy stolons. Stems usually strigillose, rarely with erect hairs, the hairs confined in some populations to the lines decurrent from the margins of petioles. Lamina of lf linear to ovate, 0.5-2 × 0.1-1.5 cm. Floral tube 0.5-1.5 mm deep, glabrous or somewhat strigillose outside. Petals white, sometimes flushed pink after pollination, 2.8-6 × 1.8-4.5 mm. Capsule glabrous to densely strigillose, 1.4-4 cm long; fruiting pedicel 1-10 cm long.

N.; S.; St.; Ch., A., Ant., C.

Endemic.

Common in tussock grassland throughout, sea level to 1735 m.

FL Sep-Feb.

Raven and Raven's concept of E. alsinoides is very broad and under the 3 subspp. below are included several entities treated by Allan (1961) as distinct.

The 3 subspp. are distributed as follows: subsp. alsinoides : N.: open, sometimes damp, grassland, especially on eroding banks, sea level to 1160-(1465) m throughout; S.: N. Nelson and N. Marlborough. This subsp. includes plants treated by Allan (1961) as E. thymifolium Cunn. and E. alsinoides Cunn. pro parte. subsp. atriplicifolium (Cunn.) Raven et Engelhorn : N.: common in open tussock or rocky banks, sometimes in moist places, sea level to 1735 m from Bay of Islands S., but very rare N. of Lake Rotorua; S.: throughout except for the Canterbury Plains and areas of dense forest; St.: widespread; Ch., A., Ant., C. Raven and Raven relegated E. cockayneanum Petrie, E. novae-zelandiae Hausskn. and E. findlayi Allan   var. pubescens Allan, all treated by Allan (1961) as distinct taxa, to synonomy under this subsp., and noted that some plants treated by Allan as E. alsinoides are also referable to this subsp. subsp. tenuipes (Hook. f.) Raven et Engelhorn : N.: from Hawke's Bay and the vicinity of Lake Taupo to the Tararua Range; S.: throughout. Tussock grassland, in relatively protected places around the bases of grass clumps. This taxon was treated by Allan (1961) as E. tenuipes Hook. f.; Raven and Raven relegate E. elegans Petrie, accepted by Allan, to synonomy under this subsp.

Some N.Z. botanists regard several of these subspp. and synonyms as distinct taxa and Raven and Raven considered their E. alsinoides an "enormously complex species". They suggested that human disturbance of the tussock grasslands where E. alsinoides sens. lat. usually grows had resulted in isolated populations of largely selfing individuals. They retained the concept of a single sp. because artificial hybrids among populations are fully fertile.