Vinca minor L.
lesser periwinkle
Stems prostrate, mat-forming, trailing or creeping, glabrous or nearly so. Petioles 0.5-4 mm long, glandular, sometimes minutely ciliate. Lamina mostly 2-5 × 1-2 cm, elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate, glabrous or nearly so; base broadly cuneate or rounded; apex obtuse. Pedicels 1.7-3 cm long, very slender. Calyx 3-4 mm long; lobes broadly lanceolate, subacute. Corolla purple or violet with white central eye, usually double or semi-double; tube 7-8 mm long; limb 1.5-2 cm diam.; lobes obliquely obovate, truncate at apex. Anthers c. as wide as long, but most stamens transformed into petals. Follicles not seen.
N.: scattered localities; S.: Christchurch, S. Canterbury, Dunedin; St.: Halfmoon Bay.
Europe, W. Asia 1904
Beneath trees and shrubs near gardens and plantations and in adjacent forest.
FL mainly Sep-Jan.
The form cultivated in N.Z. usually has purple, double or semi-double corollas, and does not seem to form fr. It probably corresponds to cv. 'Multiplex'.
