Flora of New Zealand Series

sand spurrey

Annual to perennial herb; taproot sometimes stout. Stems decumbent to ascending or erect, (2)-5-15-(30) cm long. Lvs fascicled, not fleshy, linear, mucronate, (2)-4-10-(15) × 0.5-0.8 mm, glabrous or with glandular hairs. Stipules silvery, shortly connate, not forming a sheath, lanceolate, acute, 3-4.5 × 1.5-2 mm. Infl. a racemoid monochasium, many-flowered, with glandular hairs. Pedicels (2)-4-9 mm long, mostly > sepals, with glandular hairs. Sepals obtuse to subacute, (2.5)-3-4 mm long, with glandular hairs; margin scarious. Petals purplish pink, < sepals. Stamens (4)-7-10. Capsule c. = sepals. Seeds subtrigonous to semicircular, brown, not winged, finely papillate, 0.45-0.5 mm long.

N.; S.: throughout except Taranaki.

N. Hemisphere 1878

Waste land, roadsides, railway ballast, dry pastures, riverbeds, gravel beach.

This sp. has also been known in N.Z. as Spergularia campestris and Spergula rubra. Some records of Spergularia media var. salina in N.Z. refer to this sp.