The New Zealand Plant Conservation Network

Species

Gratiola concinna

Etymology

Gratiola: little beauty
concinna: charming, elegant

Current Conservation Status

2018 - Threatened - Nationally Endangered

Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2012
The conservation status of all known New Zealand vascular plant taxa at the rank of species and below were reassessed in 2012 using the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS). This report includes a statistical summary and brief notes on changes since 2009 and replaces all previous NZTCS lists for vascular plants. Authors: Peter J. de Lange, Jeremy R. Rolfe, Paul D. Champion, Shannel P. Courtney, Peter B. Heenan, John W. Barkla, Ewen K. Cameron, David A. Norton and Rodney A. Hitchmough. File size: 792KB

Previous Conservation Status

2012 - Threatened - Nationally Vulnerable
2009 - Threatened - Nationally Vulnerable
2004 - Gradual Decline

Qualifiers

2012 - De
2009 - De

Authority

Gratiola concinna Colenso

Family

Plantaginaceae

Flora Category

Vascular - Native

NVS Species Code

GRANAN

Structural Class

Dicotyledonous Herbs other than Composites

Synonyms

New Zealand plants have been referred to the Australian Gratiola nana Benth.

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

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.

Chromosome No.

2n = 30

Endemic Taxon

Yes

Endemic Genus

No

Endemic Family

No

Life Cycle and Dispersal

Mucilaginous seeds are dispersed by water and possibly wind and attachment (Thorsen et al., 2009).

This page last updated on 13 Nov 2019