Oldenlandia galioides (F.Muell.) F.Muell.

Rubiaceae

Mueller, F.J.H. von (1881) Plants of North Western Australia : 9.

Prostrate or ascending annual; stems much-branched to 45 cm long, glabrous to tuberculate, rarely minutely scabrous; often roots at the nodes.

Leaf blades glabrous, 10-30 x 0.5-3 mm. Stipules interpetiolar, bilobed, triangular, 0.5-1 mm long. Leaves linear to narrow-elliptic, 4-22 x 0.5-3 mm, apex attenuate, glossy and shiny above, margins revolute.

Flowers solitary or few together in axils, peduncles filiform to 2 cm long. Pedicels 3-17 mm long and minutely tuberculate. Calyx tube subglobose, 0.7-0.9 mm diameter, with scabrid hairs; lobes triangular, 1-1.5 mm long, keeled and with scabrid hairs on the margins, acute, ± persistent in fruit. Corolla white, glabrous, tube 0.7-1.5 mm long, lobes shorter than the tube, 0.5-1 mm long. Ovules 45-60 per locule. Style 0.8-1.5 mm long.

Capsule ovoid to ovoid-globose, 1.5-3 x 1-3 mm, glabrous to minutely papillate, furrowed, scarcely protruding beyond persistent erect calyx lobes, beak 0.5-0.7 mm long. Seeds numerous, obconic and laterally compressed, 0.25-0.3 mm long with a pale brown, reticulate-areolate testa.

Features not available.

Occurs in WA, NT, CYP, NEQ and CEQ. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 400 m. Grows along watercourses, edges of pools and swamps in rainforest, Eucalypt forest, Melaleuca swamp, various types of woodland, heathland and wooded grassland. Also from New Guinea.

Hedyotis galioides F.Muell., Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae 4(27): 38(1864), Type: Ad fluvium Victoria River sicut ad rivos ei tributarios in locis udis umbrosis ripariis; F.M. In vicinia sinus Broad Sound; Bowman.