Family: Frankeniaceae
Frankenia subteres
Synonymy: F. granulata J. Black, Trans. R. Soc. S. Aust. 57:154 (1933).
Common name: Summerh., J. Linn. Soc.(Bot.) 48:369 (1930).
Description:
Small shrub; branches differentiated into long- and short-shoots, hirtellous with short spreading hairs, internodes 3.5-18 mm long; long-shoot leaves 4.5-12.5 mm long; leaf bases medially thickened, indurate, somewhat flattened toward margins, tapering toward the distal end, 0.6-1.7 mm long, 0.5-0.8 mm wide at the distal end; leaf blades narrowly oblong to linear, terete, coriaceous, 0.8-1.5 mm wide; margins strongly thickened, tightly revolute on fresh, dried and boiled material, true abaxial surface reduced to a narrow medial furrow; mid-vein narrow, linear, inconspicuous; surfaces grey-green, adaxial and abaxial surfaces puberulent, hairs spreading; short-shoot leaves often somewhat shorter than the subtending long-shoot leaves.
Flowers borne at the top 1-3 nodes of the upper branches, commonly in dichasia with 2-11 flowers or solitary; floral bracts leaf-like, connate at the base into whorls of 4; calyces 5-lobed, 5.5-8 mm long, 1.8-2.7 wide near the apex, tubular, gradually broadening toward the apex, puberulent with spreading to lightly curved hairs; petals 5, cuneiform to spathulate, 9.7-10.3 mm long; stamens 6, in 2 unequal whorls, 7.8-9.5 mm long; styles c. 8-9 mm long; style-branches 3, c. 2 mm long bearing terminally oblique slightly swollen stigmas 0.5-0.6 mm long; ovaries with 3 parietal placentae 1.3-1.8 mm high, extending up the lower approximately one-half to two-thirds of the ovary wall; ovules c. 17-32, attached along the entire placenta by erect funicles.
Capsules 1-4-seeded, seeds 0.9-1.1 mm long.
Published illustration:
Barnsley (1982) Flora of Australia 8:fig. 28a.
Distribution:
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S.Aust.: LE, FR.
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Conservation status:
native
Flowering time: Sept. — Oct.
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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:
No text
Author:
Not yet available
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