Pelletiera verna A. St. Hil.

Echeverría, María L., Alonso, Sara I. & Comparatore, Viviana M., 2017, Survey of the vascular plants of Sierra Chica, the untouched area of the Paititi Natural Reserve (southeastern Tandilia mountain range, Buenos Aires province, Argentina), Check List 13 (6), pp. 1003-1036 : 1030

Pelletiera verna A. St. Hil.

Figure 42

Pelletiera verna A. St. Hil. (1822) : 365— Flora Argentina (2017);

Tropicos (2017).

Pelletiera serpyllifolia (Schreb.) O. Kuntze (1898) : 193 — Cabrera

(1965b): 7.

Lysimachia serpyllifolia Schreber ex Poiret (1814) : 477.

Therophytes, native with distribution in the Southern Cone Region of South Americ; previously recorded in Buenos Aires province but not in mountain range areas.

Characteristics. Annual, dwarf herb, to 10 cm tall, with angular stems. Leaves 4–6 mm long, opposite, sessile, with eliptic shape, acute apex and denticulate margin. Flowers: subsessil, 2–3 mm long; sepals linearlanceolate with apex acute; corolla white, smaller than the calyx. Fruit: globose capsule, 2 mm long, longitudinal dehiscent.

Comments. This is an infrequent species in the study area. It grows in full sunlight conditions in shallow soils on grassland slopes and at the summit. Pelletiera verna is the only species of its genus in Argentina.

Order Gentianales : Family Rubiaceae : Tribe Spermacoceae