Gratiola concinna
Synonyms
New Zealand plants have been referred to the Australian Gratiola nana Benth.
Family
Plantaginaceae
Flora category
Vascular – Native
Endemic taxon
Yes
Endemic genus
No
Endemic family
No
Structural class
Herbs - Dicotyledons other than Composites
NVS code
The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.
GRANAN
Chromosome number
2n = 30
Current conservation status
The conservation status of all known New Zealand vascular plant taxa at the rank of species and below were reassessed in 2017 using the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS). This report includes a statistical summary and brief notes on changes since 2012 and replaces all previous NZTCS lists for vascular plants. Authors: By Peter J. de Lange, Jeremy R. Rolfe, John W. Barkla, Shannel P. Courtney, Paul D. Champion, Leon R. Perrie, Sarah M. Beadel, Kerry A. Ford, Ilse Breitwieser, Ines Schönberger, Rowan Hindmarsh-Walls, Peter B. Heenan and Kate Ladley.
2018 | Threatened – Nationally Endangered
Previous conservation statuses
2012 | Threatened – Nationally Vulnerable | Qualifiers: De
2009 | Threatened – Nationally Vulnerable | Qualifiers: De
2004 | Gradual Decline
Distribution
Indigenous. Known in New Zealand from the North and South Islands but very local, and it has disappeared from many earlier-known sites. In Australia it is an uncommon plant, and forms matching the New Zealand plant have only been reliably reported from Tasmania.
Habitat
Muddy hollows in forest clearings, streamsides or in turf at the margins of lakes, rivers or ponds; sometimes aquatic at edge of shallow lakes or rivers.
Features
Procumbent, widely creeping much branched and intertangled perennial herb forming leafy mats; branches slender, rooting at nodes, filiform, usually ascending at apices, up to 200 mm long, 0.7–0.9 mm diameter, dark green, dark green purple-spotted or maroon-red, puberulent to ± glabrescent hairs at apices initially copious, sub-retrorse to patent, eglandular, 0.8–1.1 mm long, soon shedding leaving sparse to abundant subsessile to sessile, viscid, glandular admixed with sparse, longer eglandular hairs on older stems, internodes variable, usually 2.4–4.6 mm, sometimes very widely spaced, especially on longer stems. Leaves fleshy, nerves not evident, sessile, rarely shortly petiolate, petioles 0.8–1.2 mm, glabrous or puberulent, hairs as for stems; lamina 4.0–7.6 × 2.0–5.8 mm, oblong, obovate to suborbicular, apex obtuse, ± obtusely toothed rarely subentire or entire, yellow-green, dark green, usually with purple or maroon blotching or stitch marks near teeth, or rarely with upper lamina surface irregularly maroon spotted, puberulent, hairs mostly sessile to subsessile glandular, admixed with sparse to sometimes copious 0.6–1.0 mm, eglandular hairs. Flowers 10–12 mm long, solitary in bract axils, faintly sweet-scented. Pedicels 2.0–2.5 mm, distal end wider than proximal, puberulent, glabrate, hairs patent, eglandular. Bracteoles 1.2–2.1 × 0.5–1.1 mm, linear-oblong, oblong, apex obtuse to subacute, green with dark maroon apex, puberulent, hairs patent, 0.5–0.8 mm eglandular. Sepals 2–3, free, erect, 0.5–0.8 × 0.2–0.6 mm, narrowly-lanceolate to oblong, acute, green with dark maroon apex, puberulent, hairs patent, 0.3–0.6 mm eglandular. Corolla white, throat yellow or pale pinkish yellow; tube 7.6–8.2 mm long, funnelform, veins 10–16 pale pink or maroon, externally eglandular hairy along veins, hairs patent, 0.3–0.6 mm; inner surface densely covered in tangled, weakly flexuous, eglandular, yellow or pink, hairs 0.4–0.8 mm long; lobes 5, 3.2–4.0 × 4.0–4.6 mm, orbicular to broadly obovate, emarginate, widely spreading to decurved at anthesis, glabrous. Stamens 2, filaments 1.8–2.2 mm, white, anthers 0.4–0.6 mm, white, pollen white; staminodes 1–2, 1.6–1.8 mm, white. Ovary narrowly ellipsoid, 0.3–0.6 × 0.1–0.2 mm, style 1.8–2.0 mm, caducous, stigma rather broadly 3-lobed, perpendicular to style. Capsule ovoid 3.5–4.0 mm diameter, 4-valved, septicidial and loculicidial to base. Seed 0.4–0.7 mm, oblong, narrow-oblong, 2–4-angled, dark brown, surface glossy, deeply reticulate, mucilaginous when fresh.
Similar taxa
The prostrate, widely creeping mat-forming growth habit, usually very hairy stems, small leaves and conspicuous funnelform flowers readily distinguish this species from the three other indigenous Gratiola. New Zealand plants have been confused with the Australian G. nana from which they differ by their oblong, obovate to suborbicular rather than elliptic to narrow-oblong leaves, clear rather than golden glandular hairs, and larger flowers with the bracteoles longer than the sepals.
Flowering
December-February
Flower colours
Purple, White, Yellow
Fruiting
March–July
Life cycle
Mucilaginous seeds are dispersed by water and possibly wind and attachment (Thorsen et al., 2009).
Propagation technique
Easily grow from division of whole plants and fresh seed but short-lived and difficult to maintain over time. Does best if planted in a pot which is then partially submerged in water, and kept in a sunny situation.
Threats
Habitat loss through wetland drainage and competition from introduced weeds.
Etymology
gratiola: Little beauty
concinna: Charming, elegant
Where To Buy
Not commercially available.
Taxanomic notes
Gratiola concinna as currently circumscribed is extremely variable and it si possible that more than one entity lurks under that name (see images of this variation in de Lange et al. 2010). Further study of this variation would be worthwhile.
Attribution
Fact Sheet prepared for NZPCN by P.J. de Lange 3 April 2004. Description by P.J. de Lange based on live plants and herbarium specimens - see also de Lange et al. (2010)
References and further reading
de Lange, P.J.; Heenan, P.B.; Norton, D.A.; Rolfe, J.R.; Sawyer, J.W.D. 2010: Threatened Plants of New Zealand. Christchurch, Canterbury University Press.
Thorsen, M. J.; Dickinson, K. J. M.; Seddon, P. J. 2009. Seed dispersal systems in the New Zealand flora. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics 11: 285-309
NZPCN Fact Sheet citation
Please cite as: de Lange, P.J. (Year at time of access): Gratiola concinna Fact Sheet (content continuously updated). New Zealand Plant Conservation Network. https://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora/species/gratiola-concinna/ (Date website was queried)