Fruiting bodies and leaves (ssp. desertorum). Photo: Don Wood, Scotia Sanctuary, NSW

Plant (ssp. desertorum). Photo: Don Wood, Scotia Sanctuary, NSW

Flowers and leaves (ssp. microphyllum). Australian Plant Image Index, photo: Murray Fagg, Stackpoole State Forest NE of Goolgowi, NSW

Leaves (ssp. microphyllum). Photo: Russell Best, near Melbourne, Vic

Common Name

Desert Goosefoot (ssp. desertorum), Frosted Goosefoot (ssp. desertorum and ssp. rectum), Small-leaved Goosefoot (ssp. microphyllum), Mallee Goosefoot (ssp. anidiophyllum)

Family

Chenopodiaceae

Notes

Shrub or annual or perennial forb to 40cm tall or prostrate. Leaves opposite each other or alternating along the stem. Leaves 0.5-2cm long, 5-20mm wide, flat, scurfy and hairy, with entire edges. Flowers tiny (less than 3mm across), in clusters at the bases of the leaves or at the ends of the branches, interrupted spikes, or in panicles, the topmost flowers male or bisexual, the side flowers female. Fruit dry or succulent, mealy. Vulnerable Vic (ssp. rectum). Rare Vic (ssp. desertorum).

Chenopodium desertorum ssp. desertorum has flowers and fruiting bodies covered with small, glistening, irregularly shaped sacs filled with fluid.

Chenopodium desertorum ssp. anidiophyllum has flowers and fruiting bodies that are covered with small, dull, grey to white sacs filled with fluid, the plant is erect and the leaves are 10-20mm long, and the branches are straight or bendy (not rigid).

Chenopodium desertorum ssp. microphyllum has flowers and fruiting bodies that are covered with small, dull, grey to white sacs filled with fluid, the plant is prostrate to sprawling and the leaves are less than 10mm long, and the flower groups are usually shorter than the leaves at the ends of the branchlets.

Chenopodium desertorum ssp. rectum has flowers and fruiting bodies that are covered with small, dull, grey to white sacs filled with fluid, the branches are rigid, the plant is erect, and the flower groups are usually longer than the leaves at the ends of the branchlets.

Description of ssp. desertorum (as Chenopodium desertorum) in G.M. Cunningham, WE Mulham, PL Milthorpe and J H Leigh (1981 and later printings) Plants of Western New South Wales page 260

Description of ssp. anidiophyllum (page 258) and photo of leaves and fruiting bodies (page 259) (as Chenopodium anidiophyllum) in G.M. Cunningham, WE Mulham, PL Milthorpe and J H Leigh (1981 and later printings) Plants of Western New South Wales

Description of ssp. microphyllum (as Chenopodium pseudomicrophyllum) in G.M. Cunningham, WE Mulham, PL Milthorpe and J H Leigh (1981 and later printings) Plants of Western New South Wales pages 261-262

PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Chenopodium~desertorum