Flora of New Zealand Series

Annual or biennial taprooted herb. Stems suberect or erect, densely covered in glandular hairs above, (3)-8-20 cm long. Lvs not fascicled, somewhat fleshy, linear, mucronate, the lower glabrous, the upper with glandular hairs, (3)-5-12-(15) × 0.5-0.8 mm. Stipules greyish, not silvery, shortly connate, not forming a sheath, triangular to ovate, acute, 2-2.5 × 1-1.5 mm. Infl. a racemoid monochasium, many-flowered. Pedicels 1.5-3 mm long, < sepals. Sepals with glandular hairs, obtuse, 2.5-3.5 mm long; margins scarious. Petals white or pink, < sepals. Stamens (0)-2-5-(8). Capsule < sepals. Seeds ovate, brown, finely papillate, 0.4-0.5 mm long, not winged.

N.: Auckland, Wanganui, C. Palliser; S.: Nelson, Marlborough, Canterbury, Otago.

S.W. Europe and Mediterranean 1968

Sandy or stony waste land, roadsides, mudflats, railway yards, salt meadows.

In this sp. the infructescence is much > the vegetative part of the stem.