Sclerolaena muricata
(Moq.) Domin Black Roly-polyDivaricately branched, usually rather dense shrub to c. 1.5 m high, branches weakly ridged, glabrous, with sparse semi-appressed pubescence or shortly woolly, sometimes becoming gently zigzagged as fruits mature. Leaves linear to elliptic, 5–15 mm long, glabrous or with few to many appressed or semi-appressed hairs. Fruiting perianth hard, glabrous to shortly woolly; tube c. 2 mm long, slightly expanded at base, obliquely attached, attachment flat or slightly convex; limb not or barely developed; spines 4 or 5, widely spreading to recurved, the 3 abaxial spines c. 5–15 mm long, the 2 (or sometimes 1) adaxial 1–4 mm long.
LoM, MuM, Wim, VVP, VRiv, MSB, RobP, MuF, GipP, OtP, Gold, CVU, NIS, HSF.
3 varieties, all in Victoria (plants of intermediate form are sometimes encountered).
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
