Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Spergularia rubra
Common name
Sandspurry, Red sandspurry
Family
Caryophyllaceae
Where found
Grassy areas, disturbed sites, and around saline flats. Widespread.
Notes
Introduced annual, biennial, or short-lived perennial herb, sprawling, to 0.2 m tall. Stems hairless to more or less sticky hairy on the upper parts. Leaves scarcely fleshy, opposite each other, often clustered or in whorls. Leaves 0.4-2.5 cm long, 0.4-1.2 mm wide, thread-like, hairless or sticky hairy, tips drawn out into a thin bristle. Conspicuous silvery membranous stipules which give a frosted appearance to the plant, fused to the stem for much less than half their length, tips gradually tapering to a point. Flowers with 5 uniformly pink or lilac petals, each 2.4-4 mm long, and with 5-10 stamens, in open many-flowered leafy clusters. Seed cases 4-5.5 mm long. Flowers Spring.
Definite differentiation between the species of Spergularia depends on microscopic examination of the seeds.
Description mostly taken from: Adams, L.G. West, J.G. & Cowley, K.J., (2008) Revision of Spergularia (Caryophyllaceae) in Australia. Australian Systematic Botany 21: 263-264
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Spergularia~rubra (accessed 18 January, 2021)
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