Flora of New Zealand Series

Umbels simple, bracts 0 or minute. Fls. 5-merous; calyx-teeth us. obsolete; stamens inflexed in bud; styles filiform. Fr. laterally much-compressed, commissure very narrow, carpophore 0. Vittae 0 or sunk in primary rib or replaced by ± continuous oil-bearing layer. Mericarps with us. 1 (often obscure) rib on face. Seed invested by woody covering. Small perennial herbs. A widespread genus of some 75 spp., sts treated as constituting a separate family-Hydrocotylaceae. The N.Z. spp. are perennial herbs, often forming large patches; stems ± slender, branching, creeping, rooting at nodes; lvs us. clustered at nodes, simple to 3-5-foliolate, of ± orbicular-reniform order; stipules scalelike.