Flora of New Zealand Series

Cheeseman's account is: "A perennial herb with tufts of radical leaves, emitting short thick stolons terminating in other tufts, glabrous in all its parts. Leaves numerous; petiole 2-4 in. long or more, filiform, terete, dilated towards the base; blade 1/4-3/4 in. long, ovate or ovate-oblong, obtuse, suddenly contracted into the petiole, rather thin; main veins 3-5, parallel, with reticulating veinlets between. Flowers crowded at the bases of the petioles, sessile, minute. Calyx 1/10 in. long or less, tipped with 5 minute teeth. Corolla altogether included in the calyx, shortly 5-lobed. Stamens 4, inserted on the corolla-tube. Style short; stigma capitate. Capsule included within the persistent calyx, 1/10-⅛ in. diam., globose, rupturing irregularly. Seeds very numerous; testa reticulated."

DIST.: "Otago - Watery places in the Manuherikia Valley, Petrie."

Cheeseman (Man. N.Z. Fl. 1925, 776) had seen only specimens collected by Petrie and remarks that the fls appear to be cleistogamic. Glück (loc. cit. 550) gives for N.Z. "Catlins River, leg. T. Kirk". The sp. sens. lat. occurs in Australia, especially Victoria and N.S.W. The only N.Z. specimens I have seen are in very poor order. In the type folder at K is a drawing. On another sheet are three rosettes; the label reads "860 Catlins River, T. Kirk, recd. 7/78."