Flora of New Zealand Series

sea spurrey

Taprooted annual or biennial, rarely perennial. Stems decumbent, sparsely covered in glandular hairs above, or glabrous, 3-7-(10) cm long. Lvs not fascicled, fleshy, linear, obtuse or mucronate, 3-8-(12) × 1 mm, the lower glabrous, the upper with sparse glandular hairs. Stipules pale, not very silvery, connate for c. 1/2 of length and forming a short sheath, broadly triangular, subacute to acute, 1-1.5-(2) × 1-2 mm. Infl. a dichasium, few-flowered. Pedicels (1)-2-6-(10) mm long, with glandular hairs. Sepals obtuse, 2-3.5 mm long, with glandular hairs; margins scarious. Petals pink or white, < sepals. Stamens 1-5-(8). Capsule c. = to slightly > sepals. Seeds ovoid, brown, smooth, not winged, 0.5-0.6 mm long.

S.: Canterbury (Lake Forsyth and Lake Ellesmere), Otago (Kaikorai and Sandy Mount).

Coastal Europe, Tierra del Fuego, Falkland Is 1940

Mudflats, sand flats, saline pastures.

The sp. has also been referred to in N.Z. as S. salina and as S. media var. salina.