Flora of New Zealand Series

Sisyrinchium pulchellum R. Br. Prodr.  1810, 305.

Renealmia pulchella (R. Br.) R. Br. Prodr. Add.  1810, 592 

(non Renealmia Linn. f. 1781).

Libertia micrantha A. Cunn. in Compan. bot. Mag. 2, 1837, 375.

Type locality: Vicinity of Port Jackson, N.S.W.

Lfy fans us. only half-erect; little-branched rhizome often 5–10 cm. long, attached to substratum, sts insecurely, by thin, wiry roots. Lvs 3–6–(12) cm. × 2–3–(6) mm., the downward-facing surface much duller than the other; nerves few. Peduncles slender, us. > lvs. Panicle simple; bracts c. 3–10 mm. long, narrow-lanceolate, green, in 1–3 clusters each with 2–3–4 fls on very slender, us. pubescent pedicels to 1–3–(4) cm. long. Fls c. 1–1.5 cm. diam.; tepals all white, spreading widely, subequal, outer ovate-oblong, inner narrow-oval. Staminal filaments very shortly connate; anthers c. 2 mm. long; pollen sacs narrow, little longer than wide connective. Ovary globose, 1/5–1/6 per.-length. Capsule globose, deeply 3-furrowed; valves keeled and strongly recurved as dehiscence is completed. Seed c. 1.5 × 1 mm., rounded, almost smooth, pale yellowish, often remaining attached by long funicle. n = 19.

DIST.: N., S.

Also in Tasmania, eastern Australia and New Guinea where plants are mostly larger than those of N.Z. on which the above description is based.

Damp mossy places in forest.

FL. 11–12. FT. 2–6.

L. micrantha was based on plants from Wangaroa and "humid rocky banks of the Keri-Keri River, below the Falls". Type: K. A. Cunningham.

In North Id, pedicels are pubescent and lvs minutely scabrid near the tip, while in Fiordland pedicels are glab. and lf-margins wholly smooth. Plants from Nelson show other combinations of these characters.