Common name: Knawel
Scleranthus fasciculatus (R.Br.) Hook.f. APNI* Description: Lax, straggling, procumbent perennial with non-woody base; stems to 30 cm long, usually hairy.
Leaves in fascicles, 4–12(-16) mm long, (0.2-)0.3–0.8 mm wide, keeled, incurved, usually hairy, with apiculate apex, margins very narrowly scarious, papillose.
Inflorescence a pedunculate pair of subsessile flowers, peduncle up to 7(-11) mm long in fruit, usually hairy, occasionally glabrous; bracts usually hairy; pedicels absent or very short, to 0.1 (rarely to 0.5) mm long; sepals 5, triangular ovate, 0.4–0.7 mm long, 0.2–0.7 mm wide, overlapping at base, with scarious margin and keeled midrib. Stamen 1, enclosed within the calyx, caducous.
Fruiting calyx ovate in outline, not or finely ribbed, veins often obscure, 1.5–2.4 mm long, 0.6–0.9 mm diam.
Flowering: Sep–March
Distribution and occurrence: South along tablelands from near Bathurst; also Vic, Tas; New Zealand. Grassy woodlands and montane forests, on loamy soils.
NSW subdivisions: CT, ST
Other Australian states: Vic. Tas.
Very similar to S. sp. Fitzs Hill, which occurs mostly farther north than S. fasciculatus. There may be some overlap in range on the SW side of Sydney and in the Blue Mountains.
Text by KL Wilson (Feb, April 2014); edited KL Wilson (Sept 2015)
Taxon concept: KJ Cowley and JG West, Fl Victoria vol. 3 (1996)
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data
***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
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