Flora of New Zealand Series

Stellaria sp. Cheesem. Ill. N.Z. Fl. 1, t. 19.

Type locality: Nelson. Type: K, Nelson, Bidwill.

Perennial erect herb up to 10 cm. tall or more, branches wiry, few or if many forming loose cushion, often dry and yellow. Stems puberulous, nodose. Lvs linear-subulate, concave above, 3-6 mm. long, with minute marginal cilia at base, tapering to short apiculus, connate, with short lfy shoot in axil of one of pair. Fls solitary and terminal, peduncle erect to 5 cm. or more long with one pair of bracts. Sepals 5, 4-5 mm. long, ovate-lanceolate, acute with membr. margins; petals 5, bifid almost to base, wide-spreading and often longer than sepals; stamens 10; styles 3, capsule valves 6, exceeding calyx when mature; seeds 6-15, pale, up to 1 mm. long, with almost transparent papillae largest on keel.

DIST.: N. Mt. Hikurangi; Ruahine Mts. S. Rocky and well-drained places in tussock-grassland, sealevel to 1500 m. alt.

FL. 10-3. FT. 2-10.