Flora of New Zealand Series

chickweed

Annual. Stems weak, ascending, terete, (10)-15-40-(60) cm long, with 1 line of hairs. Lvs green, not connate, ovate to broadly lanceolate, acute to apiculate, narrowing abruptly at base, ciliate on proximal margins and midrib above, 5-40-(50) × 5-15-(25) mm; petiole ciliate, c. = lamina in lower lvs, almost 0 in upper lvs; marginal vein distinct. Infl. terminal, cymose, usually lax, (1)-3-15-(50)-flowered. Bracts leaflike. Pedicels slender, patent, (5)-10-40 mm long, with 1 line of hairs. Sepals narrow-lanceolate, obtuse to subacute, not veined, (3)-4-6 mm long, hairy outside; margins scarious. Petals slightly < to slightly > sepals. Stamens (0)-3-5-(10). Capsule narrow-ovoid, = or slightly > calyx. Seeds dull brown, 0.9-1.2 mm long; tubercles triangular, sharp.

N.; S.; St.; K., Ch., Ant., A., C.: throughout.

Europe 1832

Grassland, waste land, roadsides, coastal sandy sites, damp sites, cultivated land, disturbed stony sites, riverbeds.

N.Z. plants are referable to S. media subsp. media. Small plants may approach S. pallida but seeds are usually distinctly larger and petals almost always present in S. media. Three collections from Canterbury (CHR 91500, Domain, Ashburton, Healy 54/332, 18.1.1954; CHR 92172, Ashburton, Healy 56/294, 31.10.1956; CHR 118312, Islington, nr. Christchurch, Healy 59/291, 24.3.1959) match S. pallida in their small (< 0.8 mm long) seeds with low tubercles and lack of petals, but their sepals are 3.2 mm long (and glabrous in the Ashburton specimens) and their seeds are reddish brown. These have been previously recorded as S. pallida. They also may be merely reduced states of S. media. Similar difficulties are discussed by Coode, M. J. E., in Fl. Turk. 2 (1967), who treated S. pallida as a subsp. of S. media.

The sp. has also been referred to in N.Z. as Alsine media.