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Electronic Flora of South Australia species Fact Sheet

Family: Amaranthaceae
Suaeda australis

Citation: Moq., Annls Sci. nat. 23:318 (1831).

Synonymy: S. maritima (L.)Dumort. var. australis (R. Br.)Domin, Biblthca Bot. 89:626 (1921); Chenopodium insulare J. Black, Trans. R. Soc. S. Aust. 69:309 (1945); C. australe R. Br., Prod. Fl. Nov. Holl. 407 (1810).

Common name: Austral seablite.

Description:
Rounded perennial branching from the base, glabrous; leaves slender and semiterete and c. 30 mm long to thick and fusiform and c. 10 mm long, acute or obtuse, succulent.

Flowers in axillary clusters, bisexual or sometimes unisexual.

Fruiting perianth divided to near the base, depressed-spherical, c. 3 mm diam.; lobes succulent, rounded on the back; ovary free, depressed-globular passing into a stout style, c. 0.5 mm long; stigmas 2 or 3, slender; seed horizontal, lenticular, c. 1 mm diam.; testa smooth, glossy, reddish-brown; perisperm slight, on the upper and lower side of the embryo.

image of FSA1_Suaeda_aus.jpg Suaeda australis
Image source: fig. 173b in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).

Distribution:  Found in coastal saltmarshes.

S.Aust.: LE, EP, NL, MU, YP, SL, KI, SE.   W.Aust.; Qld; N.S.W.; Vic.; Tas.

Conservation status: native

Flowering time: Flowers and/or fruits: all months, especially Jan. — June.


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

Biology: A very variable species that has sometimes been treated as a variant of S. maritima (L.)Dumort., a polymorphic Northern Hemisphere annual. Populations from near the Murray River in S. Aust. and neighbouring N.S.W. and Vic. correspond closely to S. maritima and may represent an introduction of that species.

Author: Not yet available


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