Flora of New Zealand Series

Lobelia perpusilla Hook. f. Fl. N.Z. 1, 1853, 158.

Type locality: "Hawkes Bay, in muddy places". Type: K, Colenso no. 263.

Slender herb, glab. or ± pilose, with prostrate stems and branches rooting at nodes; branchlets very slender, ascending at tips or elongate and sprawling. Lvs subsessile or with petioles up to 5 mm. long. Lamina ovate-oblong to oblong in outline, (2)-3-4-(5) × (1)-1·5-2-(3) mm.; coarsely, deeply toothed (teeth occ. few), ± pilose, membr. to slightly fleshy. Peduncles at first very short, elongating to 10-15-(20) mm. long, filiform. Fls (4)-6-10 mm. long; calyx ± pilose, 4-5 mm. long; lobes ± 2 mm. long, linear, acute to acuminate, ± recurved. Corolla white to very pale cream; lobes linear-lanceolate, acute, up to ± 7 mm. long; anthers glab. Berry (immature) subglobose, green, ± 3 mm. diam.; seeds ∞.

DIST.: N., S. Coastal to lowland damp places, local, from lat. 38° southwards.

FL. 10-3.

A somewhat polymorphic and distinctly plastic sp. A very shy fruiter; plants apparently functionally dioec. I have grown together plants from two slightly separate localities for over 5 years. Though flowering is very free I have seen only 1 fr. Simpson and Thomson (T.R.S.N.Z. 72, 1942, 33) remark: "Berry ± 3 mm. diam., globose, green, indehiscent. Seeds numerous, minute, broadly oblong, brown." Their plants were collected "At the end of March, 1941, from hollows in fixed dunes at Wickliffe Bay, Otago Peninsula."

The type specimen has lvs ± 4 × 2 mm., ovate-oblong, deeply bluntly toothed, on petioles ± 2 mm. long. Fls ± 6 mm. long (mature) on peduncles 4-6 mm. long. Calyx 3-4 mm. long, ± pilose, deeply cleft; lobes ± 2 mm. long, narrow-triangular, blunt. The stems and branches are rather densely clad in appressed white hairs.