Flora of New Zealand Series

Soft decumbent annual herb up to 10 cm. or more long, rooting at lower nodes and forming small green patches. Stems glab., sparingly branched. Lvs distant, membr., broadly ovate, apiculate, base truncate, lamina 6-15 × 4-13 mm., petioles 2-9 mm., winged, occ. with multi- cellular hairs. Fls in axillary 2-fld infls; compound peduncle often exceeding If length. Sepals 5, c. 3 mm. long, glab., narrow-triangular, with pale scarious margins; petals 5, narrow, deeply cleft, shorter than sepals, or absent; stamens 5-10; styles 3, capsule thin-walled, much longer than sepals, splitting into 6 valves; seeds brown, flattened, 1 mm. long, tubercles low, elongated, in rows concentric with margin.

DIST.: N., S., St., Ch. Shaded, us. damp, places.

FL. 10-12. FT. 11-3.

Colenso described two closely related spp., S. oligosperma (T.N.Z.I. 18, 1886, 257) and S. pellucida (T.N.Z.I. 27, 1895, 383) but neither description mentions any feature not matched in S. parviflora. Cheeseman (Man. N.Z. Fl. 1925, 420) could find no distinguishing characters among Colenso's numerous specimens. Kirk (Stud. Fl. 1899, 57) reduced both to vars.