Myosotis australis
Content
Description
Perennial herb.
Leaves oblong, spathulate-oblong or lanceolate-oblong, petiole winged, l-4(-6) cm long in rosetta leaves, 0-0.5 cm in stem leaves, blade 5-10 by 0.5-1.2 cm in rosetta leaves, 2.5-3.5 by 0.3-0.8 cm in lower, 0.8-2 by 0.3-0.5 cm in upper stem leaves, tapering towards base, obtuse to subacute, hairs denser, antrorse or irregular, arising from a group of mineralized cells or not on lower, looser except on midrib, antrorse or slightly irregular, rarely spreading on upper side.
Inflorescence short, indistinctly scorpioid first, strongly elongated, fairly straight later on, rhachis with antrorse hairs sometimes hooked at apex, ebracteate; pedicels 1-2 mm long, hairy.
Stamens: anthers subsessile, oblong, sometimes apiculate, 1.5 mm long.
Distribution
Australasia: Tasmania (Tasmania present), New Zealand present, mountains of New Guinea present, temperate Australia present
New Zealand, Tasmania, temperate Australia; Malesia: mountains of New Guinea.
Notes
Myosotis saruwagedica has been separated from M. australis mainly for differences in the indument. It should have longer, soft hairs especially along the margin. This difference does not hold, when more numerous specimens are compared. Even plants from the Saruwaged mountains do not show the typical characters. No other distinguishing characters could be found.
The most obvious peculiarity of the species in the wide sense is the deciduous calyx. In older plants, there are only the pedicels remaining in the lower part of the cymes.
According to Grau & Schwab (1982), M. australis has pollen grains characterized by a rhomboidal area on the colpi and only loosely verruculous surface, while the rhom- boidal area is less distinct and wartlets are dense in the otherwise closely related M. saruwagedica. As no correlations to other characters could be found, the value of this difference seems to be rather doubtful.