Flora of New Zealand Series

clammy goosefoot

Glandular-scaly, aromatic, annual herb puberulent with septate hairs. Stems prostrate, decumbent, occasionally erect and to c. 40 cm tall, ribbed. Petiole 0.1-1.5-(2.2) cm long, slender; lamina (0.3)-0.5-2.7-(3.5) × 0.15-1.3-(2) cm, ovate to elliptic or oblong, ± pinnatifid, sometimes purple below, puberulent, especially below; glandular scales few to many, yellow; lobes unequal; base narrow-cuneate; apex rounded to acute. Fls axillary, few to many in sessile glomerules, glandular-puberulent. Perianth segments 0.5-0.9 mm long, narrow and not touching, not keeled, mostly green, becoming white in fr. Stamen 1. Fr. incompletely invested by perianth; pericarp easily removed. Seed vertical, 0.5-0.7 mm diam., from ± globose to ± broad-elliptic; margin acute; testa shining dark brown, smooth.

N.: settled areas throughout; S.: settled areas in Nelson, C. Marlborough and C. Otago, occasional in Canterbury and N. and S. Otago.

Australia 1838

Cultivated ground, open waste places, sometimes coastal on dunes and similar sandy areas.

FL Dec-Feb.

The Eurasian C. botrys L. has been reported for N.Z. The record is probably based on misidentification of C. pumilio. C. botrys has more elongated and branched infls. Records of C. carinatum for N.Z. are also based on material of C. pumilio. C. pumilio has (4)-5 perianth segments, whereas the closely related indigenous C. pusillum has (3)-4-(5).