Flora of New Zealand Series

Leptinella minor Hook. f. Fl. N.Z. 1, 1853, 129.

Soliva tenella A. Cunn. in Ann. nat. Hist. 2, 1839, 128 ?

Type locality: Canterbury Plains. Type: K, Travers. The type sheet has 8 plants, 7 with capitula.

Stems creeping, rooting, up to c. 4 dm. long, glab. to silky-hairy; branches very slender to almost filiform, often glab. or nearly so; lvs alt. or fascicled at nodes. Lamina narrowly obovate-oblong, thin, membr., glab. or slightly hairy when young, (10)-15-30-(50) × 5-10 mm.; pinnatisect to pinnate. Pinnae c. 10 pairs, rather distant, subopp.; upper ± oblong, ± 5 × 3 mm., sessile, us. deeply toothed all round, teeth ovate-oblong, acute, apiculate; lower rather distant, c. 2 mm. long, often entire. Costa flat, glab. or sparsely glandular. Petioles chartaceous, 5-(10) mm. long, with sheathing bases. Scape ± 15 mm. long, slender to filiform, nude, with minute sparse hairs. Capitula (2)-3-5 mm. diam.; receptacle slightly convex. Phyll. c. 10, broad-oblong to ovate-oblong, 1-2 mm. long, margins us. purple. Florets and achenes glandular. ♀ in 3-4 series, corolla broad-ovoid, 2-3-toothed or entire; ♂ ∞, funnelform, tube c. 2 mm. long; teeth minute, narrow-triangular. Achenes obovoid, compressed, c. 1 mm. long.

DIST.: N., S. Lowland to montane from near North Cape southwards; wet ground, margins of swamps, streamsides, shaded grassy places, sandy tidal flats. Doubtfully recorded for Campbell Id (Sorensen, D.S.I.R. Cape Exped. Ser. Bull. 7, 1951, 34).

Cunningham has: "S. tenella, repens stolonifera, foliis pinnatifidis, apice dilatatis pinnatolobatis, lobis oblongis incisis. New Zealand (Northern Island), on the margins of fresh-water streams―1864, R. Cunningham." Hooker (Fl. N.Z. 1, 1853, 129) doubtfully places Soliva tenella A. Cunn. as a synonym of Leptinella dioica "fide exemplar mancum in Herb. Heward". In Handbk N.Z. Fl. 1864, 141, 143  Soliva tenella A. Cunn. is cited without comment as a synonym of both C. australis and C. dioica. Kirk (Stud. Fl. 1899, 325) and Cheeseman (Man. N.Z. Fl. 1925, 996) treat it as a synonym of C. minor. I have not seen specimens.