Hedyotis auricularia var. melanesica Fosberg

Fosberg, F.R. (1940) Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club : 419. Type: Fiji: Kandavu, hills above Namalata and Ngaloa Bays, alt. 200–400 m., A.C.Smith 157 (NY) (type).

Decumbent to ascending herb; stems pubescent to scabrous, terete, rooting at the nodes.

Leaf blades 30-150 x 10-25 mm, sometimes sessile or petiole 5-8 mm long, scabrid. Stipule margins fimbriate with 4-10 lobes, up to 7 mm long. Leaf blade surface sparsely clothed in short hairs, lateral veins 6-7 on each side of the midrib and forming an angle of about 15 degrees, veins on abaxial surface scabrid.

Flowers borne in very dense heads or fascicles each containing up to 12 flowers. Flowers subsessile, 2-4 mm diam. Calyx lobes 0.6-0.8 mm long, hispidulous. Corolla tube 1-2 mm long, corolla lobes about 1.5 mm long, inner surface papillate, pubescent on outside. Ovary 0.8-1.5 mm long, densely clothed in hairs. Ovules one per locule. Stigma bilobed.

Fruit globose, sparsely hispidulous with erect persistent calyx lobes. Seeds angular.

Features not available.

Occurs in NT, CYP, NEQ and CEQ. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 660 m. Grows in moist areas and along streams in rainforest, Eucalypt forest, vineforest, vine thicket and occasionally in evergreen woodland on sandy soils. Also from Indonesia, Malesia and the Pacific Islands.