Suaeda baccifera

Procumbent or weakly erect annual or short-lived perennial, to c. 0.3 m high, glabrous, glaucous or grey-green, sometimes tinged pink. Leaves linear, acute, 5–15 mm long, 1–1.5 mm wide, margins narrowly membranous, transparent. Flower clusters axillary, forming rather dense leafy panicles; perianth of bisexual and female flowers similar, lobed from about midway; anthers c. 0.3 mm long. Fruiting perianth of at least bisexual flowers with inflated segments, depressed-globular, to c. 3 mm diam., anthers c. 0.5–0.8 mm long, female flowers with or without inflated segments, seed usually erect, sometimes horizontal; seed lenticular, 1–1.5 mm diam., testa black or dark reddish-brown, minutely reticulate (visible at ×20 magnification), falling free from pericarp. Flowers mostly Nov.–Mar.