Citation: R. Br., Prod. Fl. Nov. Holl. 435 (1810).

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Slender speedwell.

Description:
Slender perennial herb with slender erect branches 4-35 cm long, arising from a horizontal stolon, with dense short to long retrorse eglandular hairs in 2 rows decurrent between the leaves and in a single row on the rhachis and pedicels; leaves opposite, connected across the node by a ridge, sessile, linear, rarely narrow-ovate, 5-30 x 0.5-3 rarely to 6 mm, the margin entire, recurved, rarely with 2 or 3 pairs of short teeth, acute, glabrous, pubescent.

Racemes in upper axils 2-5-flowered, the bracts similar but smaller than the upper leaves, 2-8 mm long, the pedicels to 12 mm long; sepals 4, narrow-ovate, 4-6 rarely 8 mm long, free except at the very base, glabrous or sparsely eglandular-puberulent; corolla with more or less equal, rounded lobes 4.5-6 mm long; stamens with flat filaments, the anthers broad, 0.8-0.9 rarely 1.1 mm long; ovary hirsute at the apex, with the style slender, 3.5-4.2 mm long, capped by the stigma 1-2 mm diam.

Capsule not seen.

	Leaf and fruit.
Image source: fig. 596B in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).

Published illustration: Cochrane et al. (1968) Flowers and plants of Victoria, fig. 373.

Distribution:  Rare; in damp sites. S.Aust.: MU, SL, SE.   N.S.W.; Vic.; Tas. Conservation status: native Flowering time: Oct. — Dec.

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

Biology: No text

Taxonomic notes: Resembles Parahebe decorosa in foliage, but differs for example in the direction of the indumentum on the branches. In A handbook to plants in Victoria 2:570 (1973), J. H. Willis refers to 2 taxa presently placed under this species, one with broadish leaves and short internodes, the other with distant pairs of narrow-linear leaves, long pedicels to 10-20 mm long and a glabrous ovary. Only one collection of the latter has been made from S. Aust., from Honans Scrub (SE) where plants twined within a dense swamp thicket and were flowering in January. B. G. Briggs (pets. comm.) and F. Ehrendorfer consider it a new species, referrable for the present as "V. sp. aff. gracilis".

Author: Not yet available