solitary or fascicled in the axils of the leaves or at the nodes of the branches, rarely terminal. Perianth-tube of the male flowers very short and solid, of the females adnate to the ovary; limb 3–4-partite. Anthers as many as the perianth-segments and sessile on them, broadly ovate or oblong, opening by pores on the inner side. Ovary inferior; stigma large, pulvinate, sessile or nearly so. Fruit a 1-seeded berry, usually crowned by the remains of the perianthsegments; mesocarp succulent and viscid. Albumen copious, fleshy; embryos 1 or 2 in each seed.
About 30 species are known, widely spread through the tropical and temperate regions of the Old World.
| Joints flat, broadly obovate, ⅕–½ in. long, ⅛–⅓ in. broad. Flowers spicate, the spikes in lateral pairs and 1–3 terminal | 1. V. Lindsayi. |
| Joints flat, linear-spathulate, ¼–½ in. long, 120–18 in. broad. Flowers spicate, the spikes always solitary | 2. V. clavatum. |
| Joints terece, 110–13 in. long, 125 in. broad. Flowers sessile, in whorls between the joints | 3. V. salicornioides. |
1. V. Lindsayi, Oliver ex Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 108.—A small succulent perfectly glabrous sparingly branched leafless little plant 2–6 in. high; branches opposite, divaricate, jointed; joints much flattened, ⅕–½ in. long, ⅛–⅓ in. broad, broadly obovate to obovate-spathulate, coriaceous, dark-green, often punctate. Spikes usually 2 (rarely 4) to each node and 1 to 3 at the top of the terminal joint, about ¼ in. long, jointed, the tip of each successive joint expanded and enclosing a whorl of 6–10 closely packed flowers. Flowers very minute, dioecious; the males pyriform, of 3 fleshy perianth-segments, each bearing a sessile anther on its inner face; the females of an ovoid ovary crowned by 3–4 perianth-lobes. Fruit obovoid, 115 in. long, tipped by the persistent perianth-lobes.—Lindsay, Contr. N.Z. Bot. 52, t. 2.
North Island: Hawke's Bay—Norsewood, Colenso! Patangata, Tryon! South Island: Marlborough—Pelorus Sound, Macmahon! Canterbury—Near Christchurch, Armstrong. Otago—Vicinity of Dunedin, Lindsay, Buchanan! Petrie! Winton, Kirk! October–February.
Parasitic on Sophora, Melicope, Myrtus, Metrosideros, Coprosma, Myrsine, &c.
2. V. clavatum, T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxiv. (1892) 429, t. 37.—Very closely allied to V. Lindsayi, and perhaps only a variety, but a smaller plant, seldom more than 2 in. high, with the joints of the stem much narrower, linear-spathulate, ¼–½ in. long, 120–18 in. broad. Spikes apparently always solitary, either terminal or from the nodes. Male flowers not seen, but female flowers and fruit quite like those of V. Lindsayi.
South Island: Canterbury—Castle Hill Basin, 2000–3000 ft., Enys! Kirk! T.F.C.
Parasitic on Aristotelia fruticosa, Discaria, and Coprosma.
