Common Name: Brooklime
Description: Perennial herbs, minutely, sometimes obscurely, gland-dotted.
Leaves opposite, simple, 3-veined at the base, sessile.
Inflorescences open racemes or spikes, flowers single, or rarely 2, in the axil of leaf-like bracts; bracteoles 2, on the pedicel just below the calyx. Sepals 5, free. Corolla tube symmetrical at the base, neither swollen nor spurred, broad, ± cylindrical, apically upturned; limb ± forward directed, obscurely 2-lipped; upper lip 2-lobed; lower lip 3-lobed, without a palate. Stamens 2, anthers adjacent; staminodes 2 or sometimes absent; filaments without spurs; anthers with 2 separate loculi. Stigma perpendicular to the style, with 2 broad equal flaps.
Capsule 4-valved, dehiscing both septicidally and loculicidally, leaving a central column with some remnants of the septum attached; seeds numerous, not winged, reticulate.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 20 species, northern & southern temperate zones. Australia: at least 5 species (native), all States except N.T.
Text by W. R. Barker
Taxon concept:
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Prostrate, mat-forming herb; leaves 0.2–1.1 cm long | Gratiola nana |
| Erect to procumbent herbs; leaves 0.5–4.5 cm long | 2 |
| 2 | Pedicels 8–26 mm long; sessile glands with globular heads conspicuous on the leaves, bracteoles and sepals; branches, pedicels, bracteoles and sepals finely glandular-pubescent | Gratiola pedunculata |
| Pedicels less than 7 or rarely to 12 mm long; sessile glands conspicuous or obscure; indumentum of glandular and non-glandular hairs variable
Back to 1 | 3 |
| 3 | Sessile glands with conspicuous globular heads on the leaves, bracteoles and sepals; sepals and bracteoles finely glandular-pubescent; pedicels 1–2.5 mm long | Gratiola pubescens |
| Sessile glands obscure, evident as hollows on the leaves, bracteoles and sepals; sepals and bracteoles sparsely hairy with non-glandular hairs and/or finely glandular-pubescent to glabrous; pedicels 0.5–8 or rarely to 12 mm long
Back to 2 | 4 |
| 4 | Leaves ovate to more or less elliptic or broadly so, usually 6–27 mm wide; style (on young capsules) 1.8–3.5 mm long; mature seeds with brown ridges; corolla pale pink, white in parts | Gratiola peruviana |
| Leaves narrow-ovate to narrow-elliptic, 1–8 mm wide; style (on young capsules) usually 1.3–1.8 mm long; mature seeds with white ridges; corolla white
Back to 3 | Gratiola pumilo |
|
