Classification
Class
Magnoliopsida Brongn.
Order
Caryophyllales Juss. ex Bercht. & J.Presl
Family
Amaranthaceae
Genus
Oxybasis Kar. & Kir.
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Oxybasis ambigua (R.Br.) de Lange & Mosyakin, Phytotaxa 350: 266 (2018)
Synonymy:
  • ≡ Chenopodium ambiguum R.Br., Prodr. Fl. Nov. Holland. 407 (1810)
  • ≡ Chenopodium glaucum var. ambiguum (R. Br.) Hook.f., J. Linn. Soc., Bot. 1: 313 (1857)
  • ≡ Chenopodium glaucum subsp. ambiguum (R.Br.) Murr & Thell. in Thellung, Mém. Soc. Sci. Nat. Math. Cherbourg 38: 196 (1912)
  • ≡ Oxybasis glauca subsp. ambigua (R.Br.) Mosyakin, 56: 4 (2013)
Lectotype (designated by Wilson 1983: 141, as “holotype”, correctable to lectotype, Art. 9.9 of the ICN; McNeill et al. 2012):— AUSTRALIA: Tasmania. Label 1: “Chenopodium ambiguum prodr. 407 | Port Dalrymple or South Coast”; Label 2 (curatorial, printed and typewritten text) “Plants of Australia | Collected by Robert Brown | 1801–1805 | Chenopodium glaucum L. | Type collection of C. ambiguum R. Br. | Tasmania: Georgetown (Port Dalrymple) | January 1804 | Cf. Stearn’s Introduction to Robert Brown’s Prodromus | (1960) prefixed to Hist. Nat. Classica facsimile” (BM001015839). Image available from: https://plants.jstor. org/stable/10.5555/al.ap.specimen.bm001015839. Isolectotype: “R. Brown, Iter Australiense, 1802–5 | [presented by direction of J.J. Bennett, 1876] | No. 3031 | Ch. ambiguum Br. | Port Dalrymple” (K000898449). Image available from: https://plants.jstor.org/stable/10.5555/al.ap.specimen.k000898449.
  • = Chenopodium glaucum f. paschale Fuentes, Bol. Mus. Nac. Hist. Nat., Santiago de Chile 5: 332 (1913)
 Description

Prostrate branching herb with diam. up to 6 dm., with stout deeply descending main root; stems glab., ridged, with ∞ branches. Lvs on flattened petioles (2)–5–10–(15) mm. long; lamina (2)–4–10–(20) × (2)–3–5–(12) mm., thick, fleshy, glab. and dark green to reddish above, glaucous to white below, with appressed tomentum; obovate-cuneate to rhomboid to oblong, distantly to rather closely dentate, rarely crenate; often 1 pair of teeth exceeding rest. F1. clusters small, in simple or compound axillary and terminal spikes. Per. segs 3–4, obtuse, not completely covering fr. Seeds 1–1·5 mm. long, black, shining; margins rounded.

[From: Allan (1961) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 1 as Chenopodium ambiguum R.Br.]

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Non-endemic)
 Bibliography
Brown, R. 1810: Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van-Diemen. Johnson, London.
de Lange, P.J.; Gosden, J.; Courtney, S.P.; Fergus, A.J.; Barkla, J.W.; Beadel, S.M.; Champion, P.D., Hindmarsh-Walls, R.; Makan, T.; Michel, P. 2024: Conservation status of vascular plants in Aotearoa New Zealand, 2023. New Zealand Threat Classification Series. No. 43. [Declining]
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. [as Oxybasis glauca subsp. ambigua (R.Br.) Mosyakin] [Declining]
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. [as Chenopodium ambiguum R.Br.] [Not Threatened]
Fuentes, F. 1913: Reseña botánica sobre la Isla de Pascua. Boletin del Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, Santiago de Chile 5: 320–337.
Hooker, J.D. 1857: On the Botany of Raoul Island, One of the Kermadec Group. Journal of the Linnean Society. Botany 1: 125–129.
Mosyakin, S.L. 2013: New nomenclatural combinations in Blitum, Oxybasis, Chenopodiastrum, and Lipandra (Chenopodiaceae). Phytoneuron 56: 1–8.
Mosyakin, S.L.; de Lange, P.J. 2018: New combinations for three taxa of the Oxybasis glauca aggregate (Chenopodiaceae) from Australasia, East Asia, and South America. Phytotaxa 350(3): 259–273.
Thellung, A. 1912: La flore adventice de Montpellier. Mémoires de la Société des Sciences Naturelles et Mathématiques de Cherbourg. Cherbourg 38: 37–728.