Class
Family
Genus
Classification
Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Crassula manaia A.P.Druce & Sykes, New Zealand J. Bot. 26: 477 (1988)
Etymology:
Description
Small, delicate, pale green, succulent, annual or perennial herb, forming dense moss-like mats, 3-7 mm tall (to 10 mm in cultivation), 1-5 cm diam. or more (Fig. 1). Main stems unpigmented or very pale pink, filiform, prostrate, rooting at lower nodes, not ascending at tips, or scarcely so in open situations, ascending in shade, 0.2-0.4 mm diam.; branching copious, at first prostrate then ascending; length of internodes variable, up to 10 mm but mostly less than 5 mm, mostly much greater than leaves. Leaves connate, plano-convex in cross-section, ellipticlanceolate or elliptic-ovate, obtuse to subacute, 1.0-2.0-(3.5) mm long, 0.6-1.0 mm wide, 0.4-0.6 mm thick, minutely but densely papillose, mostly spreading at an angle much greater than 45° to the stem. Flowers 4-merous, solitary in leaf axils, 1-1.3 mm diam.; pedicels shorter 1 mm, elongating to c. 3 mm at fruiting. Calyx lobes ovate-lanceolate, ovate-elliptic or broadly ovate, 0.7-1.0 × c. 0.4 mm; apex ± acute. Petals ± triangular-ovate, from slightly shorter to slightly longer than calyx lobes, 0.6-0.9 × c. 0.3 mm, red in upper part; apex acuminate. Stamens 0.3-0.4 mm long. Scales minute, c. 0.1 mm long, very narrowly spathulate or clavate, pinkish. Follicles splitting along whole suture. Seeds (1)-2 per carpel, brown, 0.3-0.35 mm long, ± cylindric-ellipsoid.
[Reproduced from Druce & Sykes (1988, New Zealand J. Bot. 26: 477-478) with permission from The Royal Society of New Zealand.]
Biostatus
Indigenous (Endemic)
Phenology
Flowering: Nov.–Mar.
Bibliography
de Lange, P.J.; Norton, D.A.; Courtney, S.P.; Heenan, P.B.; Barkla, J.W.; Cameron, E.K.; Hitchmough, R.; Townsend, A.J. 2009: Threatened and uncommon plants of New Zealand (2008 revision). New Zealand Journal of Botany 47: 61–96. [Nationally Vulnerable]
de Lange, P.J.; Norton, D.A.; Heenan, P.B.; Courtney, S.P.; Molloy, B.P.J.; Ogle, C.C.; Rance, B.D. 2004: Threatened and uncommon plants of New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 42(1): 45–76.
de Lange, P.J.; Rolfe, J.R.; Barkla J.W.; Courtney, S.P.; Champion, P.D.; Perrie, L.R.; Beadel, S.N.; Ford, K.A.; Breitwieser, I.; Schönberger, I.; Hindmarsh-Walls, R.; Heenan, P.B.; Ladley, K. 2018: Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2017. New Zealand Threat Classification Series. No. 22. [Nationally Vulnerable]
de Lange, P.J.; Rolfe, J.R.; Champion, P.D.; Courtney, S.P.; Heenan, P.B.; Barkla, J.W.; Cameron, E.K.; Norton, D.A.; Hitchmough, R.A. 2013: Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2012. New Zealand Threat Classification Series 3. Department of Conservation, Wellington. [Nationally Vulnerable]
Druce, A.P.; Sykes, W. R. 1988: A new species of Crassula L. in New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 26: 477–478.
