Citation: Paul G. Wilson, Nuytsia 2:31 (1975).

Synonymy: Kochia excavata J. Black, Trans. R. Soc. S. Aust. 47:368 (1923); K. villosa Lindley var. humilis Benth., Fl. Aust. 5:187 (1870); K. tomentosa F. Muell. var. humilis (Benth.)J. Black, Fl. S. Aust. 197 (1924), Black's description should be referred to M. trichoptera; K. humillima sensu Tate, Hdbk Fl. Extratrop. S. Aust. 50 (1890), non F. Muell.

Common name: Bottle bluebush, bottle fissure-weed.

Description:
Decumbent perennial with a stout tap root; branches loosely woolly-when young; leaves alternate; narrowly oblong-elliptic to elliptic, 7-12 mm long, tawny-appressed-villous.

Flowers solitary, with or without a pair of narrow-oblong bracteoles c. 1.5 mm long.

Fruiting perianth fleshy when fresh, depressed-barrel-shaped and constricted in the middle, c. 3 mm high, more or less flat above, glabrous; tube (when dry) with the upper half very broadly turbinate to convex, 10-ribbed, thin-walled, lower half expanded into a spongy hollow base which when attached to the plant is filled by the cushion-shaped receptacle; wing thin, horizontal, circular, entire, c. 10 mm diam., faintly nerved and with a single radial slit; upper perianth flat, glabrous except for the woolly ciliate margin of the perianth lobes.

	Maireana excavata fruit
Image source: fig. 159n 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. 269.

Distribution:  S.Aust.: FR, EP, NL, MU.   N.S.W.; Vic. Conservation status: native Flowering time: Flowers and/or fruits: July — Dec.

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