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Electronic Flora of South Australia species Fact Sheet

Family: Amaranthaceae
Rhagodia spinescens

Citation: R. Br., Prod. Fl. Nov. Holl. 408 (1810).

Synonymy: R. spinescens R. Br. var. deltophylla F. Muell., Rep. Babbage Exped. 1858 19 (1859); R. deltophylla (R. Br.)A.J. Scott, Reprium nov. Spec. Regni veg. 89:10 (1978). , Chenopodium spinescens

Common name: Spiny saltbush, thorny (or hedge or creeping) saltbush.

Description:
Shrub to 1.5 m high; branches divaricate, frequently spinescent; leaves opposite or subopposite, mealy all over with discrete saucer-shaped or spherical vesicular hairs; lamina ovate to deltoid or hastate, 0.5-2 cm long, obtuse to rounded at the apex; petiole about half the length of the lamina.

Inflorescence a straight panicle or reduced to a spike; perianth densely mealy outside; male flowers globular, 0.5-1 mm diam., filaments united into a glabrous saucer-shaped disc; female flowers globular to broadly turbinate, c. 1 mm high, eventually spreading beneath the fruit and 2.5-3 mm diam., becoming hard and pale-red; staminodes c. 0.3 mm long, united into a broad glabrous or sparsely hairy disc.

Berry depressed-globular, pink or red; seed c. 1 mm diam.; testa prominently reticulate.

image of FSA1_Rhagodia_spi.jpg Rhagodia spinescens twig, portion of leaf and fruit
Image source: fig. 164g 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. 279.

Distribution:  S.Aust.: NW, LE, NU, 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: probably all months, especially Aug. — Dec.


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

Biology: A very variable species that occupies a number of different habitats.

Author: Not yet available


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