Atriplex nummularia
Lindl. Old-man SaltbushErect shrub to c. 3 m high, mostly dioecious. Leaves ovate, broadly elliptic or rhombic, 15–40 mm long and wide, margins entire, sinuate or coarsely toothed, often undulate, surfaces uniformly grey-green. Male flowers in globose clusters commonly crowded along simple or branched spikes. Female flowers clustered in leafless panicles, in upper axils or sometimes a few subtending male flowers. Fruiting bracteoles sessile, orbicular to rhombic, fused below widest part near base, mealy grey, thickened and corky for the greater part, but thin near apical margin, entire or finely toothed in the upper part, rounded at apex, mostly 6–10 mm long and wide, dorsal appendages absent.
MuM, Wim, VVP, VRiv, MSB, RobP, MuF, GipP, NIS.
3 subspecies, the 2 in Victoria not always clearly distinguishable from one another. Subsp. spathulata Aellen from Western Australia and far south-west South Australia has thin, papery bracteoles with prominently reflexed margins.
Walsh, N.G. (1996). Chenopodiaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 3, Dicotyledons Winteraceae to Myrtaceae, pp. 129–199. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
Spinning
