Citation: A.J. Scott, Reprium nov. Spec. Regni veg. 89:114 (1978).

Synonymy: Bassia tatei F. Muell., Victorian Nat. 7:66 (1890); Austrobassia tatei (F. Muell.) Ulbr., Natürl. Pflanzenfam. edn 2, 16c:532 (1934).

Common name: None

Description:
Rounded perennial c. 50 cm high, predominantly dioecious; branches closely woolly; leaves opposite or subopposite, suborbicular (when short) to semiterete, 5-15 mm long, thick and fleshy with a broad sessile base, shortly appressed-villous, the hairs slightly asperulous.

Flowers solitary; perianth sparsely pilose; male flower: stamens 5, pistillode with stigmas shortly exserted; female flower: stamens absent, pistil with stigmas slender and long-exserted.

Fruiting perianth thin and weakly crustaceous, straw-coloured; tube oblong, c. 3 mm long and 2 mm wide, very compressed dorsiventrally, glabrous, curving upwards, expanded into a broad spongy hollow base c. 3 mm diam.; limb shortly pubescent, erect, forming a short crest; spines 2, lateral, parallel and erect, to 1 mm long, sometimes with a small radicular spine adjacent to 1 of the lateral, or spines absent; seed and radicle erect.

	Sclerolaena tatei fruits
Image source: fig. 170n in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).

Published illustration: F. Mueller (1891) Iconography of Australian salsolaceous plants, t. 71.

Distribution:  Found mainly between Lake Torrens and the Flinders Ranges. S.Aust.: LE, GT, FR, EA. Conservation status: native Flowering time: Flowers and/or fruits: July — 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