Family: Amaranthaceae
Atriplex velutinella
Citation:
F. Muell., Rep. Babbage Exped. 1858 20 (1859).
Synonymy: A. velutinella F. Muell. forma appendiculata Aellen, Bot. Jb. 68:381 (1937).
Common name: Sandhill saltbush.
Description:
Erect short-lived perennial to 1 m high, monoecious; thinly lepidote to scaly-tomentose all over; leaves sessile, thin, broadly elliptic to broadly ovate, 1-3 cm long, sinuate to bluntly toothed or sinuate-lobed, acute to obtuse, base cuneate to rounded.
Flowers in mixed clusters, axillary or forming interrupted spikes.
Fruiting bracteoles sessile or shortly pedicellate, appressed, free except at the short broadly cuneate base, narrowly to broadly triangular, 4-8 mm long, entire or toothed at the base, almost glabrous to tomentose, smooth or with 1 or 2 tubercles on either side near the base; seed circular; radicle erect.
| Atriplex velutinella. Fruit
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Image source: fig. 151r in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).
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Published illustration:
F. Mueller (1889) Iconography of Australian salsolaceous plants, t. 5; Cunningham et al. (1982) Plants of western New South Wales, p. 246.
Distribution:
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Found usually around dams, creeks or bores in saline soil.
S.Aust.: NW, LE, NU, GT, FR, EA, EP, MU. N.T.; Qld N.S.W.
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Conservation status:
native
Flowering time: all months especially July — Dec.
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SA Distribution Map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of South Australia
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Biology:
This species is similar to A. acutiloba and specimens intermediate between the 2 have been collected. It evidently hybridises with A. acutibractea in eastern S.Aust. In north-eastern S.Aust., where the distribution of A. velutinella coincides with that of A. cordifolia, plants intermediate in morphology between the 2 species may be found.
Author:
Not yet available
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