Fruiting bodies and leaves. Australian Plant Image Index, photo Kevin Thiele, Oakden Hills, SA

Shrub. Australian Plant Image Index, photo S Donaldson, S of Hay, NSW

Common Name

Cotton Bush, Leafless Bluebush

Family

Chenopodiaceae

Notes

Shrub to 2m tall. Branchlets often spiny. Leaves more or less succulent, alternating up the stems, to 0.1-0.8cm long, slender, flattened cylindical, sparsely to densely woolly, often lost in drought. Male and female flowers mostly on separate plants. Flowers small (less than 3mm across), solitary at the bases of the leaves. Fruiting bodies hairless except for the upper body, which is sparsely woolly. Wing pale green to straw-coloured, hairless, with one radial slit. Poorly known Vic.

Description and photo (pages 264-265) and line drawing of fruiting body (Fig. 47-1 page 271) in G.M. Cunningham, WE Mulham, PL Milthorpe and J H Leigh (1981 and later printings) Plants of Western New South Wales

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