Flower heads. Australian Plant Image Index, photo: Murray Fagg, Gundabook National Park N of Bourke, NSW

Flower heads and leaves. Australian Plant Image Index, photo: Murray Fagg, Gundabook National Park N of Bourke, NSW

Plant. Australian Plant Image Index, photo: Murray Fagg, Gundabook National Park N of Bourke, NSW

Common Name

Small Purple Foxtail

Family

Amaranthaceae

Notes

Perennial forb with a woody rootstock, to 30cm tall or sprawling. Leaves alternating along the stems, 1-3cm long, flat, hairless. Flowers deep red to purple on the inside, with long hairs on the outside so overall the flower heads are pinkish to mauve. Flowers with 5 'petals', flower heads at first conical, becoming fat cylindrical, solitary at the tops of the stems.

Description and photo in G.M. Cunningham, WE Mulham, PL Milthorpe and J H Leigh (1981 and later printings) Plants of Western New South Wales page 287

Description and line drawings in Flora of New South Wales editor Gwen Harden, Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney, 1990.  Volume 1 page 259.  PlantNET only has a distribution map.