Coast Sand-spurrey

Scientific Name:	Spergularia media	Coast Sand-spurrey Photo: ex-Matters & Bozon
Other Common Names:	Greater Sand-spurrey, Greater Sea-spurrey
Status:	Native to South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania and New Zealand with one record for Western Australia.
Plant Description:	Small perennial plant with a woody rootstock and stems to 40 cm long, which sometimes have a purplish colouring. The fleshy, linear but flattened leaves grow around the segment joints, are about 1-3 cm long and 1-2 mm wide and pointed. Stipules 2.5-6 mm long and not acuminate. The plant is almost hairless except for the upper leaves. It has white to pale pink or lilac flowers with 5 petals and 5 sepals about 4-7 mm long; the petals being slightly longer. Normally with 10-11 stamens. Fruit capsules are slightly longer than the sepals and contain red-brown seeds, 0.6-1.1 mm long with a membranous wing.
Habitat:	Found in coastal situations and inland saline habitats on sandy loams and clay loams and occasionally on sands overlying clay.
Comments:	A number of Sea- or Sand-spurrey species occur in Victoria and can be difficult to tell apart. A simplified key to Spergularia species can be accessed here – Key to species