Family: Amaranthaceae
Dissocarpus paradoxus
Citation:
Ulbr., Natürl. Pflanzenfam. edn 2, 16c:533 (1934).
Synonymy: Sclerolaena paradoxa R. Br., Prod. Fl. Nov. Holl. 410 (1810); Bassia paradoxa (R. Br.)F. Muell., Syst. Census Aust. Pl. 1:30 (1882).
Common name: Ball bindyi, curious saltbush, cannon-ball, hard-head bassia.
Description:
Erect or decumbent rounded much branched shrub to 50 cm high; branches woolly; leaves semiterete, slender, 5-15 mm long.
Flowers connate in groups of 8-16 in dense woolly axillary glomerules.
Infructescence a persistent densely woolly ball, 10-15 mm diam.; fruiting perianths fused in the lower two-thirds into a woody spherical mass; lobes emergent, erect; spines 5, slender, 3-6 mm long, erect or spreading, hard at first, woolly, arising at the base of each lobe.
| Dissocarpus paradoxus twig with infructescences
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Image source: fig. 154c in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).
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| Dissocarpus paradoxus
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Image source: pl. 11 in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).
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Published illustration:
Cunningham et al. (1982) Plants of western New South Wales, p. 255 and fig. 46/24.
Distribution:
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Often found on clay or on scalded zones.
S.Aust.: NW, LE, NU, GT, FR, EA, EP, NL, MU, YP. W.Aust.; N.T.; Qld; N.S.W.; Vic.
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Conservation status:
native
Flowering time: No flowering time is available |
SA Distribution Map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of South Australia
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Biology:
No text
Author:
Not yet available
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