1. HALORAGIS J. R. Forster & G. Forster, Char. Gen. Pl. ed. 2. 61, plate 31. 1776.
[I]
[Greek halos, sea, and ragis, grape-berry, alluding to maritime habitat and bunched fruits]
Mitchell S. Alix
Robin W. Scribailo
Herbs or shrubs, monoecious, terrestrial; with taproot [stolons]. Rhizomes absent. Stems erect [creeping], 4-ribbed [smooth], scabrous to sparsely pubescent [glabrous]. Turions absent. Leaves opposite [proximally opposite, distally alternate], homomorphic; petiolate [sessile]; blade unlobed [pinnatifid], margins serrate [entire], surfaces glabrous or scabrous. Inflorescences dichasia, compound, 3- or 4[–7]-flowered, in axils of alternate bracts, bracts foliagelike proximally, highly reduced distally; bracteoles paired, opposite subtending bracts; flowers bisexual. Flowers [2–]4-merous; petals caducous; stamens 8; ovary 2- or 4-locular. Fruit a nutlet, silver-gray to dark green or red, 4-lobed to 4-angled, ridges often with wingsand/or with protuberances opposite sepals or throughout, or tuberculate between ridges or wings, surfaces smooth to rugose, septa solid, endocarp woody, exocarp membranous or spongy. x = 7.
Species ca. 28 (1 in the flora): introduced, California; Pacific Islands (New Zealand), Australia.
SELECTED REFERENCE Forde, M. B. 1964. Haloragis erecta: A species complex in evolution. New Zealand J. Bot. 2: 425–453.
