Silene disticha Willd.

Taprooted annual. Stems usually single, stout, with dense short and sparse long eglandular hairs, 30–60 cm tall. Lvs hispid with shorter hairs on the margins, green, 2–8 × 0.5–2.5 cm; basal lvs oblanceolate to spathulate, acute; stem lvs becoming lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, very shortly connate, acute. Infl. of paired raceme-like monochasial cymes with a fl. in the axil between them, compact at flowering, elongating only slightly at fruiting; pedicels 2–5–(10) mm long; bracts linear, green. Fls ☿. Calyx with dense short glandular and short and long eglandular hairs, ovoid-cylindric at flowering, ovoid at fruiting, contracted at mouth, 9–11 mm long, 10-veined; teeth triangular, acute, erecto-patent. Petals white or pink; limb very short, deeply divided; claw not lobed; coronal scales oblong, obtuse, c. 0.5 mm long. Styles 3, erect, 2–4 mm long. Capsule ovoid, slightly exserted, 7–9 mm long; teeth 6, curved; carpophore 1–2 mm long. Seeds dark grey, reniform with hollowed striate faces and wide shallowly-grooved tuberculate backs, c. 1 mm long.

[From: Webb et al. (1988) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 4.]

Flowering: Nov.–Dec.–(Jan.); Fruiting: Nov.–Dec.–(Jan.)