Dense, usually rounded, bright green shrub to c. 50 cm (rarely to c. 1.5 m) high. Ultimate branches thick (3–8 mm wide) with internodes 7–20 mm long, apical lobes fleshy, acute 3–5 mm long, margins pale, narrowly membranous, entire or minutely and unevenly toothed. Flowering spikes broadly cylindric to ovoid, c. 1 cm long, with 6–10 pairs of congested bracts resembling leaves but broader and acuminate to apiculate. Fruiting spike enlarged, to c. 3 cm long, 1.3 cm diam., bracts pithy toward apex, woody near base; pericarp thick and horny; seed c. 2 mm diam. Flowers mainly Aug.–Oct.
MuM, MSB, RobP. Also WA, NT, SA, Qld, NSW. In Victoria localized in the far north-west (e.g. Rocket Lake west of Nowingi, Merbein area, Lake Culluleraine, Lake Wallawalla environs), occurring in samphire or mallee communities.
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.
