Sagina papuana
Description
Polymorphous perennial herb often growing in loose mats or low, dense cushions.
Leaves glabrous or with few hairs along the margin, linear to acicular, 4-13 by 1 mm, cuspidate at apex, with broadened sheath-like base.
Flowers solitary, apparently axillary (but terminal on very short axillary shoots);
Sepals 3-5, herbaceous, ovate-oblong, 3-6 by 2-2.5 mm, apex obtuse, base truncate to subsaccate, 3-nerved.
Petals (0), 4 or 5, oblong-ovate or oblong-narrowly elliptic, apex obtuse or mucronate.
Stamens 8-10, 2.5-3 mm, filaments of episepalous stamens with a small basal gland.
Ovary glabrous, broadly ovoid.
Capsule glabrous, 3-6 by 3-4.5 mm, opening by 5 valves.
Seeds reniform, dark reddish brown, smooth, c. 0.5 mm.
Distribution
Asia-Tropical: Maluku (Maluku present); New Guinea present (Irian Jaya present); Philippines (Philippines present); Sulawesi (Sulawesi present), Ceram present, Luzon present, Papua New Guinea present
In Malesia: Philippines (Luzon), Sulawesi, Moluccas (Ceram), New Guinea (Irian Jaya and Papua New Guinea). In New Guinea it is the most common species of Sagina.
Morphology
This is a polymorphous species. Mattfeld, l.c. 270, mentions that the type has apetalous flowers, while other collections have 4 or 5 petals. There is also variation in life forms as some of the collections from about 3000 m altitude form dense mats and have small flowers with sepals only 3 mm and seeds 0.3-0.4 mm. Plants with pentamerous flowers often produce some 4-merous ones. In most collections the petals are said to be white, but in e.g. Brass 4388 they are described as pale pink.