Spiny Saltbush
New Male Flower
Spiny Saltbush
Female Flower Stem
| Spiny Saltbush New Male Flower | | Spiny Saltbush Female Flower Stem | | ||
 | Class: | Plants (Plantae) - Land Plants (Charophyta) - Land Plants (Equisetopsida) | |||
| Order: | Betalains (Caryophyllales) | ||||
| Family: | Goosefoot (Chenopodiaceae) | ||||
| Species: | Spiny Saltbush (Rhagodia spinescens) | ||||
| This Photo: | Male Flower | ||||
| Other names: | Berry saltbush, Creeping Saltbush, Hedge saltbush or Thorny saltbush | ||||
General Species Information: Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA), the Riverland and elsewhere Compared to other Spiny shrubs, this is pretty soft and painless. Has great variety of leaf colour from pale green thru to vivid red (we suspect the red ones are dying, like autumn leaves). Older leaves are green with a white milky coating and shiny reddish brown edges (margins). These leaves are very distinctive to this species making id easy, but aren't on young plants. As with all saltbushes, has tiny flowers that are barely discernible. The fruits are much darker than usual; a deep burgundy wine colour. As such, any red fruits you see with the naked eye are not fruits but the stained bracts remaining after the fruit has dropped. | |||||
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