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Manual of the New Zealand Flora.
4. Callitriche, Linn
4. Callitriche, Linn.
Perfectly glabrous slender herbs, usually growing in wet places, often aquatic. Leaves opposite, linear or obovate-spathulate, quite entire, the upper ones often crowded or rosulate. Flowers monœcious, minute, axillary, solitary or rarely a male and female in the same axil, without perianth. Male flowers of a single stamen subtended by two minute bracts; filaments slender, elongated; anther 2-celled, cells confluent above. Female flowers with or without the 2 bracts. Ovary sessile or shortly stalked, 4-celled; ovules solitary in each cell; styles 2, elongated, stigmatic throughout their length. Fruit flattened, indehiscent, 4-lobed and 4-celled, ultimately separating into 4 1-seeded carpels.
page 158A genus of very doubtful affinity, now often placed in the vicinity of the Euphorbiaceœ. The species are estimated at from 1 or 2 to 20 or 30, according to the different views of authors.
Fruits not winged, edges almost obtuse, groove between the carpels shallow. 1. C. antarctica. Fruits slightly winged, edges sharply keeled, groove between the carpels rather shallow 2. C. verna. Fruits broadly winged, wings pale, groove between the carpels deep 3. C. Muelleri.
| 1. |
C. antarctica, Engelm. ex Hegelm. in Verh. Bot. Ver. Brandenb. ix. (1867) 20.—Stems creeping and rooting, rather stout, succulent, densely matted, 2–6 in. long. Leaves fleshy, ⅕–½ in. long, narrow obovate-spathulate or oblong-spathulate, rounded at the tip, narrowed into a rather long petiole. Fruit sessile, broadly oblong or almost orbicular, somewhat turgid, not winged, the edges subacute or almost obtuse, separated by a shallow groove, so that each pair of lobes is united by almost three-quarters of their faces.—Kidder in Bull. U.S. Nat. Mus. iii. 23; Kirk, Students' Fl.. 156. C. verna, var. b terrestris, Hook. f. Fl. Antarct. i. 11. The Snares, Auckland and Campbell Islands, Antipodes Island, Macquarie Island: Not uncommon on damp soil. Also found on Kerguelen Island, the Falkland Islands, and South Georgia. |
| 2. |
C. verna, Linn. Fl. Suec. ii. n. 3.—Usually floating in still water. Stems slender, sparingly branched, 3–12 in. long. Leaves ½–¾ in. long, linear-spathulate or oblong-spathulate or obovate, rounded or retuse at the tip, very thin and membranous. Fruit sessile, rather longer than broad, subcordate, somewhat convex, edges shortly and acutely keeled, groove between the lobes rather shallow.—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 64; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 68 (in part); Kirk, Students' Fl. 156. North and South Islands: Not uncommon in streams and lakes throughout. An abundant plant in many temperate countries. |
| 3. |
C. Muelleri, Sond. in Linnœa xxviii. (1886) 229.—Stems filiform, 2–9 in. long, much branched and interlaced, forming broad matted patches on damp soil. Leaves obovate-rhomboid or broadly obovate-spathulate, cuneate at the base, suddenly narrowed into a distinct petiole. Fruit orbicular-obcordate, often broader than long, flattened, margins expanded into a broad pale wing, groove between the lobes deep.—Kirk, Students' Fl. 156. C. verna var. b, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel i. 64. C. macropteryx, Hegelm. Monog. Callit. 59, t. iv. f. 2. C. microphylla, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xx. (1888) 190. Kermadec Islands, North and South Islands, Stewart Island, Chatham Islands: Common from the North Cape southwards. Sea-level to 2500 ft. Also in Australia. page 159There seem to be two forms of this—one with a broad wing occupying a third of the whole width of the fruit, the other with a much narrower wing. The last-mentioned form was referred by Mr. Kirk to C. obtusangula, Hegelm, Monog. Callit. 54, t. 3, f. 3, but this determination is clearly erroneous, the true obtusangula having rounded angles to the fruit, which is not at all winged. |