Prostrate short-lived perennial, spreading to c. 1.5 m diam., monoecious. Leaves subsessile, oblong, narrowly elliptic or oblanceolate, 10–30 mm long, 2–8 mm wide, entire, occasionally coarsely toothed near apex, mealy grey-green on both surfaces. Male flowers in small axillary clusters or in short interrupted spikes, female flowers clustered in lower axils. Fruiting bracteoles fused to the apex, cylindric except for the flattened, sometimes slightly dilated and obscurely 3-toothed apex, 4–6 mm long, 1–2.5 mm wide overall, occasionally with small pointed tubercles near base. Fruits most of year.
LoM, MuM, Wim, VVP, VRiv, MSB, RobP, MuF, GipP, Gold. Also WA (naturalised), SA, Qld, NSW. Locally common on heavier, often saline soils in depressions, lake beds and river flats in the north-west (north and west from about Wycheproof) with disjunct occurrences in the northern Whipstick forests, Bendigo area and near Sydenham (a western suburb of Melbourne).
Source:
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.
