Flora of New Zealand Series

Perennial herb forming small to very large and extensive loose or dense mats, sometimes to many m diam.; stems decumbent, rooting at nodes, ascending at tips, much-branched. Lvs connate at base, very variable, 2-12 × 1.2-3.4 mm, c. 0.7 mm thick, narrowly oblong-spathulate or narrowly oblong-elliptic, sometimes elliptic, flattened above, weakly convex beneath; apex obtuse. Fls solitary in lf axils, star-like, 4-merous, 4-6 mm diam.; pedicels 1-3 mm long at anthesis, not elongating at fruiting. Calyx lobes 1-1.8 × 0.5-0.6 mm, ovate or triangular-ovate, obtuse. Petals 2-3.5 × 1.2-1.7 mm, broadly obovate-elliptic to suborbicular, white or white with pink flush towards base, obtuse, much > calyx. Scales 0.8-0.9 mm long, oblong-cuneate to almost linear and only slightly wider towards apex. Follicles smooth. Seeds 0.5-0.7 mm long.

N.: Mayor Id (Bay of Plenty), S. coast of Wellington; S.: outer parts of Marlborough Sounds, Farewell Spit to Punakaiki, Banks Peninsula, Otago Peninsula to S. Fiordland; St.; Ch., Ant., A., C., M.

Also indigenous to Australia, Kerguelen, Marion and Prince Edward Is, Crozet Is, Falkland Is, S. Argentina, S. Chile.

Coastal, wet cliffs and rocks, salt marshes, salt meadows, often within the salt spray zone.

FL Sep-Mar.

C. moschata is a very variable sp.; typically it can be distinguished from any other indigenous Crassula spp. by the larger lvs and larger white or pink-tinged corolla. It is a plant of strictly coastal habitats and in the more northerly parts of N.Z. usually grows on exposed coastal rocks with a southerly aspect. Further S. it is often a dominant component of the extreme coastal vegetation - on some rock faces and sea stacks C. moschata is the only sp. present and forms a band or cap. In such conditions the plants are usually red or reddish green, whereas in salt marshes and subantarctic salt meadows they are usually bright green. It was treated as Tillaea moschata by Allan (1961).