Citation: Paul G. Wilson, Nuytsia 3:17 (1980).

Derivation: Greek skeros, hard; stegos, shelter; referring to the hard pericarp.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Samphires.

Description:
Shrubs, seemingly leafless, glabrous; branches when young of cylindrical to spherical internodes (articles) that are cup-shaped to 2-lobed at the apex; segments succulent, the outer portion eventually shrivelling and deciduous.

Inflorescence either a spike-like thyrse consisting of triads of flowers (cymes) immersed in the axil of each fleshy bract or of triads dispersed among the branch segments; flowers dimorphic, central one of each triad bisexual and the lateral ones male; perianth of fused segments, membranous or succulent; stigmas 2, narrowly triangular.

Fruit: perianth membranous, succulent or shrivelled; pericarp firmly crustaceous or woody; seed ovoid; testa thin; embryo straight or curved, radicle inferior; cotyledons conduplicate; perisperm copious, lateral.

Distribution:  5 species, endemic to Australia. (P. G. Wilson (1980) Nuytsia 3:17-25.)

Biology: No text

Key to Species:

1. Flowers in spikes with opposite bracts free from each other	S. disarticulata 2.
1. Flowers in spikes with opposite bracts united, or the flowers in axils along the branches
2. Perianth succulent; style hard and protruding in fruit (especially when dry)	S. arbuscula 1.
2. Perianth membranous; style not protruding
3. Fertile and vegetative articles alike, cylindrical; leaf lobes markedly denticulate	S. medullosa 3.
3. Fertile and vegetative articles either dissimilar or the former not cylindrical; leaf lobes entire or almost so	S. tenuis 4.

Author: Not yet available