Flora of New Zealand Series

G. dissectum var. glabratum Hook. f. Fl. N.Z. 1, 1852, 39.

Annual to biennial sparsely hairy herb with slender stock and main root. Stems branching at us. wide angle, procumbent at base, then ascending, up to 3 dm. or occ. 6 dm. long; hairs spreading; branchlets very slender. Lvs on slender petioles up to 10 cm. long; stipules ± 2 mm. long, ovate, acuminate. Lamina (25)-30-50 mm. diam., suborbicular to reniform in outline, 3-4-(5)-lobed; lobes reaching to near base, ± tridentate, up to 5 mm. wide or more just below teeth, thin. Peduncles us. 2-fld, ± 4 cm. long; pedicels ± 3 cm. long; bracts small, ovate, sts laciniate. Fls ± 10 mm. diam.; sepals ovate, acute to acuminate ± 6 × 4 mm.; petals broad-obcordate, red-purple, ± emarginate. Carpels ± 2 cm. long, including beak; seeds ± 2-3.mm. long, oblong in outline, compressed, finely striate-reticulate.

DIST.: N., S. Lowland in open grassland and waste land, but local and the exact distribution uncertain.

FL.- FT. 11-2. Also in Australia and reported from Chile and Hawaii.

Distinguished inter alia from the introduced G. dissectum L. by the seeds not being deeply pitted, but the two appear to hybridize. Carse (see Cockayne and Allan in Ann. Bot., Lond. 48, 1934, 27) collected a number of specimens having the appearance of australe × pilosum. The dissectum - australe - pilosum complex is still imperfectly understood in N. Z., also the relation of certain forms to G. carolinianum of N. America. Hooker (Handbk N.Z. Fl. 1864, 36) places N.Z. plants under the name G. dissectum L. var. carolinianum, and includes three vars: pilosum. "Covered with spreading hairs. Petals often rather large.- G. pilosum, Forst.; G. patagonicum, Hook. f., Fl. Antarct. ii, 252."; patulum, "Leaves covered with spreading and retrorse hairs. Petals usually small.- G. retrorsum, DC. Prodr.; G. patulum, Forst. Prodr."; glabratum. "More glabrous, the leaves 3-5-lobed, with the lobes broader."