Flora of New Zealand Series

"E. herbaceum prostratum, caulibus repentibus, flaccidis, tenerrimis, filiformibus, remote foliatis, pallide viridibus, tenuiter bifariam pilosiusculis. Foliis minutis, glaberrimis, flaccidis, pallide viridibus, 4 mm. tantum longis latisque, suborbicularibus, basi paullo productis, in petiolum 1 mm. longum abrupte contractis, margine planis utrinque repandodenticulatis, denticulis divaricatis acuminatis, nervo medio paullo prominente, nervis secundariis vix conspicuis. Flores, Capsulae, Semina . . . Hab. pr. fontes flum. Kana-Kana inter Waimate et sylv. Hokinja Novae Zelandiae, ubi leg. A. Cunningham mixt. c. E. pedunculari No. 536 (Hb. Kew)."

Haussknecht distinguishes his sp. from E. pedunculare and E. nummularifolium "durch die scharfen abstehenden Battzähne, welche an das mit viel grösseren Blättern versehene E. linnaeoides erinnern." In his key Haussknecht gives the capsule as glab. Cheeseman (Man. N.Z. Fl. 1925, 609) cites the name as a synonym of E. nummularifolium.

The status of Haussknecht's sp. remains uncertain, but the following specimens answer the description very well. In all the teething is as described by Haussknecht: (a) BD 87279, Cape Colville, between Stony and Shag Bay, leg. L. B. Moore, 20/5/1933. Lvs 4-(10) × 5-(8) mm.; capsules ± 2 cm. long slightly pubescent; peduncles ± 8 cm.; (b) BD 11498, in pasture on sand near river, Ashburton, H. H. Allan, April 1919. Lvs 4-(6) × 4-(6) mm.; capsules ± 2 c.m. long, glab.; peduncles ± 4 cm.; (c) BD 11533, Heathcote Valley, R. M. Laing. Lvs 3-5 × 3-5 mm., teeth blunt. Possibly some of the forms may be of origin pedunculare × linnaeoides.