Volume IV (1988) - Flora of New Zealand Naturalised Pteridophytes, Gymnosperms, Dicotyledons
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Crassula sinclairii (Hook.f.) A.P.Druce & Given

C. sinclairii (Hook. f.) A. Druce et Given, New Zealand J. Bot.  22:  583  (1985)

Perennial herb forming small to large and extensive moss-like mats; stems almost prostrate except for slightly ascending tips, freely rooting at nodes, much-branched. Lvs connate at base, 0.5-2 × 0.2-0.5 mm, c. 0.2 mm thick, lanceolate-oblong, lanceolate-elliptic or oblanceolate, flattened above, strongly convex below; apex acute. Fls solitary in lf axils, star-like, 4-merous, 2.5-3.5 mm diam.; pedicels 0.5-3 mm long, elongating little at fruiting. Calyx lobes 0.4-0.6 × c. 4 mm, broadly ovate, obtuse or subacute. Petals 1-1.8 × 0.5-0.9 mm, broadly ovate or triangular-ovate, white, often flushed pink, obtuse, much > calyx. Scales c. 0.5 mm long, oblong-cuneate or oblanceolate. Follicles smooth. Seed 0.3-0.45 mm long.

N.: S. Auckland, Lake Taupo, Lake Wairarapa, Waikanae; S.: throughout, but mainly E. of the Main Divide.

Endemic.

Margins of lakes and streams, silty mud and sand, among rocks and stones, often submerged.

FL Nov-Apr.

Superficially C. sinclairii resembles a filamentous, aquatic, green alga, and when submerged produces long filiform stems with long internodes. It was treated as Tillaea sinclairii Hook. f. by Allan (1961).

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