Citation: Paul G. Wilson, Nuytsia 3:22 (1980).

Synonymy: Salicornia tenuis Benth., Fl. Aust. 5:204 (1870); Pachycornia tenuis (Benth.)J. Black, Trans. R. Soc. S. Aust. 43:363 (1919).

Common name: Slender glasswort.

Description:
Divaricately branched shrub to 0.6 m high; branchlets slender; articles narrow-turbinate to cylindrical, c. 10 mm long, pale-green, apical lobes with a broad scarious entire margin.

Spikes slender, c. 20 mm long, of 5-10 articles, usually continuing growth vegetatively for at least 1-2 cm; bracts similar to (although shorter than) the vegetative articles, completely enclosing the flowers; flowers erect, c. 4 mm long, dorsiventrally flattened distally, coalescent in the lower two-thirds to each other, perianth membranous.

Fruiting spike narrow-ellipsoid, woody, covered by the shrivelled remains of bracts or these soft, pithy and persistent; perianth membranous; pericarp thick and woody, eventually embedded in the growing woody spike axis; style not exserted; seed narrow-ovoid, 2.5-3 mm long, eventually released after death and decay of the branch.

	Sclerostegia tenuis twig, spike and seed
Image source: fig. 171d in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).

Published illustration: Wilson (1980) Nuytsia 3:82; Cunningham et al. (1982) Plants of western New South Wales, p. 277.

Distribution:  Found in heavy somewhat saline soil.   W.Aust.; N.T.; Qld; N.S.W.; Vic. Conservation status: native Flowering time: Flowers and/or fruits: April — Oct.

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