Althenia bilocularis
(Kirk) Cockayne Small-fruit Water-matPlants dioecious. Leaves not tapering distally; auricles 0.5–0.8 mm long; leaf margin entire; apex truncate, usually appearing torn with 3 or more mucros, sometimes only with single mucro. Female flowers with pedicel up to 8 mm long; stigmas recurved, very obliquely funnel-shaped, deeply and narrowly divided (appearing 'feathery'). Male flowers with scales fused, small and cup-shaped; anther 2-locular; at anthesis the pedicels elongate to c. 7 mm long and extend the flowers beyond the leaf-sheath. Fruit smooth, very slightly ridged or tuberculate dorsally, 0.8–1.3 mm long (excluding style); fruiting pedicel ± erect, not or only slightly extended, 1.5–2.5(–5) mm long, so fruit not or slightly extended beyond the leaf-sheath. Flowers (Nov.–)Dec.–Mar.
LoM, MuM, Wim, VVP, VRiv, MuF, GipP, OtP, Gold, DunT. All States except NT. New Zealand. Occurs in fresh, brackish to slightly saline, shallow water (up to c. 1 m deep) of lakes and occasionally in gently flowing streams.
Conn, B.J. (1994). Zannichelliaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 2, Ferns and Allied Plants, Conifers and Monocotyledons, pp. 156–160. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
Spinning
