Maireana decalvans
(Gand.) Paul G.Wilson Black Cotton BushWeakly erect shrub to c. 40 cm high; branchlets sparsely to moderately densely covered with cottony hairs. Leaves alternate, linear, terete, 5–11 mm long, fleshy, glabrous. Flowers bisexual, glabrous or ciliate on margins of lobes. Fruiting perianth 6–10 mm diam., perianth lobes slightly enlarged; tube shallowly hemispherical, 2.5–3 mm diam., thin-walled, truncate or slightly domed at apex; wing horizontal, flat or nearly so, radially streaked with fine brown anastomosing veins when dry; radicular slit present on wing but not extending down tube. Fruits Feb.–Jul.
LoM, MuM, Wim, VVP, VRiv, MSB, RobP, MuF, OtP, Gold, CVU. Also SA, Qld, NSW. Scattered on clays and other heavy, fertile soils chiefly along the Murray River floodplain downstream of about Echuca, but with more southerly occurrences in the mid-west of the state (e.g. Horsham, Maryborough, St Arnaud) and in the Melbourne-Bacchus Marsh area. Often a coloniser of disturbed ground.
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
