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Electronic Flora of South Australia species Fact Sheet

Family: Amaranthaceae
Maireana aphylla

Citation: Paul G. Wilson, Nuytsia 2:54 (1975).

Synonymy: Kochia aphylla R. Br., Prod. Fl. Nov. Holl. 409 (1810); Salsola aphylla (R. Br.) Sprengel, Syst. Veg. 1:925 (1824); K. villosa Lindley var. aphylla (R. Br.)Maiden & Betche, Census N.S.W. Pl. 70 (1916).

Common name: Cotton-bush, leafless bluebush.

Description:
Divaricately branched shrub 0.5-2 m high, predominantly dioecious; branchlets striate, almost glabrous to somewhat woolly, often spinescent; leaves small, alternate, slender and subterete, 1-4 rarely to 8 mm long, sparsely to densely woolly, very shortly spurred at the base, frequently caducous.

Flowers solitary, occasionally minutely bibracteolate.

Fruiting perianth straw-coloured when dry, glabrous except for the sparsely woolly upper perianth; base small, sometimes swollen or produced into a very short hollow stipe; tube hemispherical to turbinate, 1-2 mm high; wing simple, horizontal, c. 8 mm diam., papery, faintly to prominently veined, with a single radial slit; upper perianth thick, forming a circular convex disc open in the centre, sparsely woolly.

image of FSA1_Maireana_aph.jpg Maireana aphylla fruits
Image source: fig. 159a in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).

Published illustration: Cunningham et al. (1982) Plants of western New South Wales, p. 265.

Distribution:  Usually found in clay soil in seasonally waterlogged situations.

S.Aust.: NW, LE, GT, FR, EA, EP, NL, MU, YP, SL.   W.Aust.; N.T.; Qld; N.S.W.; Vic.

Conservation status: native

Flowering time: Flowers and/or fruits: mainly June — Sept. in the north and Jan. — July in the south.


SA Distribution Map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: No text

Author: Not yet available


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