Flora of New Zealand Series

Annual or perennial herbs or subshrubs with a simple taproot or a horizontal stolon system, glabrous, pilose or scabrous. Stems prostrate, decumbent to erect, terete or 4-5-ribbed, sometimes rooting at the base. Lvs alternate or opposite, terete to ovate, usually toothed to pinnatifid, less commonly entire. Hydathodes 0. Infl. spike-like, of (1)-3-7-flowered dichasial cymes in the axils of alternate primary, leaflike bracts. Secondary and tertiary bracts linear, membranous. Fls usually ⚥, 2-4-merous; pedicels short. Sepals deltoid, persistent and accrescent. Petals ± clawed, hooded. Stamens twice as many as or rarely as many as sepals; filaments short; anthers broadly linear. Ovary 2-4-celled. Styles 2-4; stigmas capitate or fimbriate. Fr. indehiscent, sometimes winged between sepals, smooth or tuberculate between ribs or wings; septa and endocarp woody; exocarp membranous to ± fleshy. Seeds 1-4.

c. 25 spp., Indian and Pacific Oceans, mainly in Australia. Native sp. 1, naturalised 1.