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Volume I (1961) - Flora of New Zealand Indigenous Tracheophyta - Psilopsida, Lycopsida, Filicopsida, Gymnospermae, Dicotyledons
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Hydrocotyle novae-zeelandiae DC.

H. novae-zelandiae DC. Prodr. 4, 1830, 67.

H. dichondraefolia A. Cunn. in Ann. nat. Hist. 2, 1839, 211.

Stems slender, up to 3 dm. long, branched, creeping, rooting at nodes, ascending at tips (sts suberect or scrambling), ± pilose. Lvs on slender retrorsely pilose petioles 1-5-(8) cm. long. Lamina (5)-10-30-(40) mm. diam., ± obscurely 5-9-lobed; lobes shallow, obscurely crenately (occ. subdentately) toothed, member. to subcoriac., pilose to nearly glab.; sinus narrow to broad. Umbels (2)-5-(12)-fld, forming heads up to c. 7 mm. diam., on peduncles 1-3-(6) cm. long. Fls subsessile. Fr. ± 2-3 mm. diam., ± flattened, glab., pale to whitish brown. Mericarps rounded on back (rarely acute); facial rib indistinct to evident.

The following is a tentative key to the other described forms:

Key

1.
Mericarps with a deep furrow on each face, giving the fr. a 4-lobed appearance
lobulata
Mericarps without a deep furrow on each face, fr. not with 4-lobed appearance
2
2.
Sinus broad
3
Sinus narrow or closed
4
3.
Peduncles ± 4 mm. long; involucral bracts few
alsophila
Peduncles ± 2.5-4 mm. long; involucral bracts 10-12, incurved, outer laciniate
involucrata
4.
Lamina not < 20 mm. diam
robusta
Lamina not > 10 mm. diam
5
5.
Stems (us. subterranean) stout; lamina coriac., glab
montana
Stems (us. above ground) slender; lamina membr., us. with some hairs
6
6.
Lamina sparsely hairy, petioles not > 15 mm. long; mericarps turgid, sharply keeled
intermixta
Lamina glab. or very nearly so, petioles not < 25 mm. long; mericarps not turgid, bluntly keeled
amoena

DIST.: N., S., St., Ch., A., C. Common in damp grassland, wet ground and forest margins throughout.

FL. 10-12. FT. 11-3.

A very polymorphic sp. still ill-resolved. I have seėn only fragments of H. dichondraefolia A. Cunn., which is described as: "foliis cordato-reniformibus lobato-crenatis 7-nerviis minutissime scabris, petiolis hirtis pedunculo glabro longioribus, umbellis sub 6-8 floris, fructibus didymis glabris utrinque 1-costatis . . . In bogs at Waimate and Keri-Keri river.―1834, R. Cunningham."

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