Leptinella
(from leptos, slender, small; on account of the habit and size of the plants). ORD. Compositae. A genus (now included, by Bentham and Hooker, under Cotula) consisting of about eighteen species of hardy, mostly perennial, herbs, inhabiting Australia, New Zealand, and the Antarctic regions. Flower-heads rather small; receptacle at length conical; corollas yellow; achenes glabrous. Leaves alternate, pinnatifid or pinnately dissected, rarely undivided or toothed. L. dioica makes a pretty summer carpet of dark green slightly pinnatifid leaves, and is much used for carpet bedding. For culture of the three species described below, see Paronychia. L. dioica (dioecious).* fl.-heads pale yellowish (male and female similar), small, on slender scapes, which may equal leaves in length. Summer. l. stalked, dark green, 1in. to 2in. long, linear or spathulate, obtuse, semipinnatifid. Stems creeping, rather stout, short. h. 2in. to 3in. New Zealand.
L. lanata (woolly). fl.-heads 1/4in. in diameter; involucre fleshy, three or four-seriate, glabrous, glandular, elliptic-rotundate; peduncles shorter than the leaves. l. petiolate, oblong, obtuse, pinnatifid; segments acute, the margins of the upper ones pinnatifid-serrate; base sheathed. Stem prostrate. Lord Auckland's Islands.
L. plumosa (feathery). fl.-heads solitary, about 1/4in. in diameter; receptacle naked, conical; involucre one-seriate; peduncles terminal and lateral, solitary, elongated, slender, as long as the petioles. l. long-stalked, linear-oblong, obtuse, tripinnatifid; segments ultimately subulate. Lord Auckland's Islands. Plant softly and loosely hairy.