Citation: Lindley in T.L. Mitchell, Three Exped. Int. eastern Austral. 2:43 (1838).

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Quena.

Description:
A clonal perennial herb 15-30 cm tall with several branches at or near ground level, the branches themselves sparsely branched; prickles usually absent, some plants having a few prickles towards the base of the plant, all parts covered with a close dense pale tomentum of stellate hairs, general aspect grey-green; lower leaves 5-8 cm long, oblong, obtuse, undulate, with 5-9 short lobes, sinuses shallow and rounded; later adult leaves 3-7 x 0.5-1 cm, oblong, entire or scarcely lobed, tip obtuse or acute, veins prominent below, in dried specimens folded leaves straight rather than recurved (cf. S. coactiliferum).

Inflorescence a 2-6-flowered cyme; peduncle 1-4 cm long; floral rhachis usually less; pedicels slender, 1-1.5 cm long; calyx tube 2-3 mm long, ribbed by the main veins which continue into the linear 2-3 mm long lobes; corolla 1-1.5 cm long, rotate-stellate, interacuminal tissue well developed, not exceeding the petal tip; filaments 2-3 mm long; anthers 4-5 mm long, oblong, slightly tapered, loosely erect; ovary 1-1.5 mm long, globular; style 8-10 mm long, pale, erect; stigma also pale, slightly bent at the tip.

Fruiting peduncles and pedicels firming, pedicels deflexed; calyx slightly enlarged to cover the base of the fruit, appressed, lobes broad, tip linear; berry 1-1.5 cm diam., globular or sometimes obovoid with a distinctly acute tip, at first marbled-green, finally pale-yellow to a light yellow-brown, firm, not succulent nor bony, 1 to several fruits ripening per peduncle; seeds 2-3 mm long, flattened, irregularly obovate, a pale yellow-brown.

	Flowering and fruiting branch and a fruit.
Image source: fig. 575B in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).

Published illustration: Cunningham et al. (1982) Plants of western New South Wales, p. 590.

Distribution:  S.Aust.: LE, GT, FR, EA, NL, MU, SL.   All mainland States. Conservation status: native Flowering time: most of the year with a peak in Dec. — March.

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