Citation: Paul G. Wilson, Nuytsia 2:37 (1975).

Synonymy: Kochia spongiocarpa F. Muell., Victorian Nat. 3:92 (1886).

Common name: None

Description:
Small shrub to 30 cm high; branches thin, densely woolly with smooth curled hairs; leaves well-spaced, alternate, fleshy, narrow-terete or fusiform, 8-15 mm long, acute, glabrous, dark-green.

Flowers solitary, bisexual, glabrous except for the woolly margin of the perianth lobes.

Fruiting perianth glabrous, dark-brown when dry; tube spongy, swollen and subglobular, c. 8 mm high and wide, easily crushed; wing simple, horizontal, entire, 12-15 mm diam., thin, shortly decurrent opposite the radicle as a fused double vertical membrane on the tube; upper perianth flat.

	Maireana spongiocarpa fruit
Image source: fig 160m in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).

Distribution:  Occurs on open plains and scalded areas. S.Aust.: NW, LE, GT, FR, EA, EP.   N.T.; N.S.W. Conservation status: native Flowering time: Flowers and/or fruits: April — Nov.

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