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Manual of the New Zealand Flora.

3. Elatostema, Forst

3. Elatostema, Forst.

Herbs, sometimes woody at the base, Leaves distichous, alternate, or if opposite one of each pair much smaller than the other, sessile or nearly so, oblique and unequal-sided; stipules lateral or intrapetiolar. Flowers very minute, densely crowded in axillary sessile or peduncled unisexual usually involucrate receptacles; involucral bracts broadly oblong or ovate, nearly free or confluent below. Male flowers: Perianth 4–5-partite; segments membranous or hyaline, often spurred or tubercled on the back. Stamens 4–5, inflexed in bud. Rudimentary ovary minute. Female flowers: Perianth of 3–5 very minute segments or altogether wanting. Stamens imperfect. Ovary straight; stigma sessile, penicillate; ovule erect. Achene minute, compressed, ovoid or ellipsoid, smooth or rarely ribbed. Seed erect; albumen usually wanting; cotyledons ovate.

About 50 species are known, for the most part natives of tropical Asia and Africa, but the genus extends northwards to Japan, and southwards to New Zealand.

  • 1. E. rugosum, A. Cunn. Precur. n. 335.—Stems stout, succulent, decumbent or prostrate and rooting at the base, erect above, sparingly branched, 1–5 ft. high. Leaves alternate, 4–10 in. long, obovate-lanceolate or lanceolate, acuminate, curved, unequalsided, aurieled and semi-amplexicaul at the sessile base, sharply serrate, membranous, rugose, pubescent with minute rigid hairs on both surfaces; stipules lanceolate, membranous, deciduous. Receptacles monœcious, solitary in the axils of the leaves, sessile or shortly pedunculate, depressed-hemispherical, often lobed, ¼-½ in. page 637diam. Males: Bracts broad, glabrous or puberulous. Flowers very numerous, pedicelled, hidden among the broad membranous bracteoles. Perianth 4 - partite; segments abruptly acuminate, hyaline. Females with the bracts narrower and more pubescent. Bracteoles linear - spathulate, ciliate. Flowers almost sessile; perianth very minute, of 4 hyaline segments. Stigma penicillate. Achene minute, ovoid, smooth.—Raoul, Choix, 42; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 227; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 253.

    North Island: Damp shaded ravines from the North Cape southwards to the middle of Wellington Province, but local to the south of the Waikato River. Sea-level to 2000 ft. Parataniwha. Flowers spring and summer.

    The heads-or receptacles are usually described as unisexual, but it is not uncommon to find both sexes mixed in the same head.