Euphrasia disperma

Detailed description

Succulent prostrate annual herb forming loosely matted patches but not rooting at nodes; main stem 1-2 mm diameter, more or less umbellately divided into usually 5 far-spreading, copiously oppositely branched stems up to approximately 200 mm or more long, or whole plant much smaller; stems and branches glabrous, or more or less pilose. Leaves sessile, fleshy, up to approximately 6 x 2.5 mm, lanceolate to ovate to quadrate in outline, acuminate, apiculate, entire or with a pair of narrow to filiform apiculate teeth up to 1.5 mm long about the middle (both forms usually on same plant), glabrous, or more or less pilose, segments sometimes tipped with cluster of hairs. Flowers borne singly along the branches on short generally horizontal pedicels which are bent abruptly at junction with calyx so that flower stands erect. Calyx 4-6 mm long, glabrous, or more or less pilose, cut approximately 1/2 way into narrow, acuminate, sometimes hair-tipped lobes, anterior clefts usually longer than other 3. Corolla white to cream, 9-15 mm long; tube up to 13 mm long, very narrow to filiform, flaring suddenly into limb 4-5 mm diameter; lobes of lower lip 1.5-2.5 mm wide, entire, of upper lip very short but wider, up to 3.5 mm wide. Anthers free, erect, golden yellow with completely glabrous margins, awns small, almost equal. Ovary with 1 ovule per locule; capsule broader than tall, rupturing calyx at anterior cleft; sometimes 2-seeded and symmetrically obcordate or bicornute, more often 1-seeded by abortion and asymmetric, approximately 2 x 4 mm and ovate to triangular in outline; apparently indehiscent. Seed close to ovate, approximately 1.3-1.4 x 2.3-2.8 (-3.5) mm long.