Crassula spathulata Thunb.
Glabrous, perennial herb; stems creeping, trailing and decumbent, rooting at nodes. Lvs with petioles 2-7 mm long, scattered along stems, closer on distal parts, not decussate or imbricate except at stem apices, to 15 × 15 mm, broadly ovate to suborbicular, flat or nearly so, green; margins crenulate and with whitish hydathodes between teeth (hydathodes otherwise 0); base broadly cuneate, rounded or slightly subcordate; apex obtuse or rounded. Infl. a very loose thyrse with ± divaricating branches, to c. 7 cm long, generally wider than long; main axis lacking bracts except at apex. Fls 5-merous, c. 10 mm diam., usually 10-many, on pedicels = or slightly > fls at anthesis. Calyx 0.6-1 mm long; lobes triangular-oblong. Corolla star-like; petals free, patent, 3.5-5 × c. 1 mm, lanceolate-acuminate or narrowly triangular- oblong, pink to rose outside, whitish or pale pink inside. Stamens 2-3 mm long, < carpels. Scales 0.1-0.2 mm long, ± narrowly rectangular (wider than long). Frs and seeds not seen; infls lacking plantlets.
N.: Whangaroa Harbour (N. Auckland), Auckland.
South Africa 1988
Steep banks along roadsides, sometimes in partial shade of tall vegetation.
FL Nov-May.
Plants of C. spathulata superficially resemble depauperate plants of C. multicava and have been mistaken for them; the 2 spp. can easily be distinguished by the lvs which in C. spathulata are crenulate with the hydathodes inconspicuous and only found between the teeth, but in C. multicava are ± entire with the hydathodes conspicuously scattered over the upper surface. Also the petioles are usually longer and the lamina usually smaller in C. spathulata.
