Flora of New Zealand Series

H. tetragyna var. diffusa Hook. f. Fl. N.Z. 1, 1852, 62.

H. diffusa (Hook. f.) Ckn. Rep. Bot. Surv. St. Id 1909, 57 non Diels in Engl. Bot. Jb. 35, 1904, 447.

Type: K. Endemic.

Wiry procumbent or prostrate herb, branches almost woody, up to 30 cm. long, ± scabrid with stiff white appressed hairs; stems obscurely tetragonous. Lvs mostly opp., almost sessile, oblong, c. 6 × 4 mm., margin cartilaginous with 2-4 hooked teeth, hairs few. Infl. racemose, bracts alt. (occ. opp.), lfy, smaller, narrower, and with fewer teeth than foliage lvs, 2-4 mm. long. Fls erect, strongly protandrous, c. 3 mm. long; sepals triangular, glab., with complete cartilaginous border and basal triangle; petals hooded with strong stiff hairs on keels; stamens 4 opp. sepals, staminodes 4 opp. petals; ovary 8-angled, long-ovoid, quite glab.; styles 4, very short, erect, bearing long multicellular hairs. Fr. brownish, pinkish or bluish, c. 1·5 mm. long, almost cylindrical, not constricted below sepals, 8 vertical ribs tending to smooth out with ripening, without hairs, faces between minutely papillose but not rugose; pericarp hard, 1 loculus, us. 1-seeded.

DIST.: Three Kings, N., S., St. On dry ground.

FL.- FT. 11-4.