Flora of New Zealand Series

parsley piert

Small but often stout, pilose, greyish green to yellowish green herb, much branched near base, 20-60-(250) mm high, sometimes decumbent and forming loose mats; stems slender, long-pilose; internodes often hidden by overlapping stipules and lvs. Lvs cauline; petiole 1.5-3 mm long and winged; blade (3)-4-8-(10) × 4-10-(12) mm, 3-partite with each segment ± flabellate and deeply divided into (2)-3-6, oblong to clavate, blunt to subacute lobes, silky pilose on both surfaces; stipules 1.5-3-(4) mm long, adnate to petiole, divided into several ± triangular or sometimes lanceolate-triangular or subulate lobes. Infl. axillary, of small cymes, sessile or with a very short peduncle, usually with upper part of sepals showing above investing stipules; fls sessile or shortly pedicellate. Fr. 2-2.5-(2.8) mm long; hypanthium ellipsoid, flattened, distinctly narrowed below teeth, pale yellow to brown, ribbed, with long hairs on ribs at least above and generally shorter hairs between ribs, sometimes densely hairy; calyx teeth 0.5-0.7 mm long, triangular, ± erect, glabrous except for long hairs on margin and rib; epicalyx minute or 0.

N.: S. Auckland (Raglan), Hawke's Bay; S.: Marlborough (Omaka and Molesworth), throughout Canterbury, N. and C. Otago.

Europe, W. Asia 1855

Short tussock grassland, roadsides and waste places, cultivated land, dry stony areas and riverbeds.

FL Oct-Feb-(Jun).

A. arvensis can often be distinguished from A. inexspectata by the generally more compact growth, the usually broader stipule lobes, especially those next to the petiole, and the distinctly longer fr. It can be distinguished from A. australiana at fruiting by the much longer hairs on the hypanthium and the ± erect calyx teeth (Fig. 98). In Europe it is generally regarded as a facultative apomict. This sp. has been previously recorded in N.Z., as Alchemilla arvensis.