Montia fontana
L. Water-blinksAnnual herb to c. 10 cm high, simple to much-branched from the base and/or above, commonly rooting from lower nodes. Leaves opposite, oblong, elliptic or spathulate, to 1 cm long, 4 mm wide, the bases expanded and very shortly fused around the stem. Flowers solitary or in small umbellate clusters in upper axils, exceedingly short-lived; pedicels elongating to c. 1 cm long in fruit; sepals wider than long, broadly rounded at apex, shortly united at base; petals unequal, united in the lower c. third, white to pale mauve; stamens 3; style trifid to below halfway to almost entire. Capsule globoid, splitting to base. Seeds blackish, smooth to papillate.
Wim, GleP, VVP, VRiv, GipP, WaP, Gold, CVU, GGr, DunT, NIS, EGL, EGU, HSF, HNF, OtR, Strz, MonT, VAlp.
4 subspecies (Moore 1963), 3 recorded for Australia and Victoria.
The following key and descriptions are based on Victorian specimens and do not completely align with descriptions of North American and western European material.
Walsh, N.G. (1996). Portulacaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 3, Dicotyledons Winteraceae to Myrtaceae, pp. 215–224. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
Spinning
