Citation: Boiss., Fl. Orient. 1:733 (1867).

Synonymy: Arenaria diandra Guss., Fl. Siculae Prod. 1:515 (1827).

Common name: Lesser (or small) sand-spurrey.

Description:
Perennial or annual slender herb with a taproot; stems 3-20 cm high, decumbent to ascending, glabrous towards the base, glandular-pubescent above but sometimes entirely glabrous except for a few glandular hairs on the pedicels and sepals; leaves filiform, 1-3 cm long, 0.5-1 mm wide, fleshy, mostly mucronulate; stipules c. 3 mm long, c. 1.5 mm wide, connate.

Inflorescence a cyme, dichotomous, leafless, usually lax but occasionally very dense; pedicels 3-15 mm long; sepals 2-3 mm long, more or less oblong, concave, obtuse, with scarious margins, with glandular hairs; petals pink, narrow, as long as or slightly shorter than the sepals; stamens 2 or 3; styles 3, free, recurved.

Capsules 2-3 mm long, 1.5-2 mm wide; valves 3 (occasionally 2); seeds triangular-obovoid, always wingless, almost smooth at first but becoming minutely tuberculate, dark-brown at first, becoming black.

Published illustration: Jafri & El Gadi (1978) Flora of Libya 59:19.

Distribution:  S.Aust.: NW, LE, NU, GT, FR, EA, EP, NL, MU, YP, SL, SE.   N.S.W.; Vic.   native to the Mediterranean. Conservation status: naturalised Flowering time: mainly Sept. — Oct.

SA Distribution Map based on current data relating to specimens held in the State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: When young the plants are very slender and glandular-hairy; as they mature the glandular tips to the hairs are lost and the plant becomes more glabrous. The seeds are the smallest of the 4 species recorded from S. Aust.

Author: Not yet available