Citation: L., Sp. Pl. edn 2:814 (1763).

Synonymy: Glechoma arvensis L., Sp. Pl. 578 (1753).

Common name: Stagger weed, field woundwort.

Description:
Annual herbs with branches quadrangular, to 35 cm long and usually several from the basal nodes, with long spreading simple hairs and often mixed with finer gland-tipped ones mainly along the branches of the inflorescence; leaves with the petiole 0-3 cm long; blade broadly ovate or triangular-ovate, 1-4 x 0.8-3.2 cm, with the base cordate or truncate, rarely cuneate, serrate to crenate-serrate, with a few spreading simple hairs.

Inflorescence a thyrse without a peduncle, with sessile cymose part-inflorescences forming a dense cluster around the nodes and with a pair of often sessile leaf-like bracts which are longer than the part-inflorescences, with internodes elongated between clusters; sepals connate about their length, 10-veined, 5-7 mm long, regular with pointed lobes of equal length, with long spreading hairs often tinged purple; corolla white or pale-pink, 2-lipped, with tube about as long as the anterior lip, 6-8 mm long, with a few scattered hairs outside and in the throat, with the posterior lip erect and hooded, with the anterior lip broadly wedge-shaped with 2 lateral lobes just shorter than the broad emarginate central one; stamens inserted in the throat of the corolla tube with filaments usually finely hairy; anthers with 2 cells fertile and strongly diverging so that they are above one another in a vertical line, glabrous, enclosed in the hood of the posterior lip of the corolla; ovary on a thick disk, deeply 4-lobed, with a slender style inserted near the base and curved along the posterior lip of the corolla, with a scarcely 2-fid stigma.

Mericarps almost orbicular in surface view, 2-25 mm long, with keels, with the attachment scar small almost circular and at the base of the inside, finely rugose.

Published illustration: Ross-Craig {1967) Drawings Brit. P/. 24:pl. 31; Cunningham et al. (1982) Plants of western New South Wales, p. 576.

Distribution:  S.Aust.: FR, EP, MU, SL, KI, SE.   W.Aust.; Qld; N.S.W.; Vic.; Tas.   New Zealand; Native to south-western and central Europe, North Africa and in North America doubtfully native. Conservation status: naturalised Flowering time: mainly May — Nov.

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

Biology: No text

Author: Not yet available