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Electronic Flora of South Australia species Fact Sheet

Family: Caryophyllaceae
Sagina apetala

Citation: Ard., Animadv. Bot. Spec. Alt. 22 (1764).

Synonymy: Sagina apetala

Common name: Common (or annual) pearlwort, New Zealand moss.

Description:
Annual with slender erect or ascending stems, c. 10 cm high, mostly tufted, never rooting at nodes; leaves linear, to 10 mm long, mucronate to aristate (awned), usually more or less ciliate towards the base.

Peduncles filiform, much longer than the leaves, often glandular-hairy at the base; flowers usually 4-merous, solitary; sepals ovate, oblong, concave, often hooded; petals minute or absent.

Capsule equalling or exceeding the sepals; seeds brown, tuberculate.

image of FSA1_Sagina_ape.jpg Sagina apetala. Habit, leaves, fruit and seeds
Image source: fig. 143a in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).

Published illustration: Ross-Craig (1951) Drawings Brit. Pl. 5:t. 53.

Distribution:  S.Aust.: NU, GT, FR, EA, EP, NL, MU, YP, SL, KI, SE.   W.Aust.; Qld; N.S.W.; Vic.   New Zealand; native to Europe.

Conservation status: naturalised

Flowering time: mainly Sept. — Dec.


SA Distribution Map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: No text

Taxonomic notes: H. Eichler (1965) Suppl. 139, thought it likely that two subspecies occurred in S.Aust., subsp. erecta (Hornem.)F. Herm., Fl. Deutschl. Fennosk. 182 (1912), and subsp. apetala but further work is needed to sort out the identity of S.Aust. specimens. Eichler's (1965) distinctions are as follows: sepals appressed to ripe fruit, ovate-oblong, outer usually acute, inner obtuse = subsp. apetala; sepals spreading horizontally in ripe fruit, ovate, all obtuse = subsp. erecta.

Author: Not yet available


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