Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: "Mt. Stokes, 3,000 ft. J. Macmahon". Type: W, "Mt. Stokes, J. McMahon 124".

Soft decumbent annual herb; stems 2-5 cm. long, much branched, glab., rooting at lower nodes. Lvs membr., ovate, acuminate, lamina c. 3·5 mm. long, tapering below into winged petiole 1-2 mm. long with a few marginal hairs. Fls in axillary 2-fld infls; compound peduncle > If length. Sepals 5, c. 3 mm. long, glab., broadly oblong, obtuse, scarious border ill-defined. Petals narrow, not longer than sepals, bifid nearly to base, or absent. Stamens 8-10. Fr. not seen.

DIST.: S.

The above description is drawn up from the type which consists of a number of fragments with ∞ fls but no mature capsules. A portion apparently of the same gathering is in A. Kirk mentions a second locality "Westport, on the sea beach, Dr. Gaze (a scrap only)" but no other records are known. Cheeseman (Man. N.Z. Fl. 1925, 420) remarks that this looks "like a reduced form of S. parviflora"; the sepal form is much nearer that of S. decipiens from which sp. the present plant differs little except in size, both fls and lvs being much smaller.