Leaves. Photographer unknown, Trust for Nature, Ned's Corner Station Reserve, Lake Culluleraine, Vic

Plant. Photographer unknown, Trust for Nature, Ned's Corner Station Reserve, Lake Culluleraine, Vic

Common Name

Wingless Bonefruit (var. deminutum), Water Weed; Babbagia

Family

Chenopodiaceae

Notes

Annual or short lived perennial forb to 20cm tall.  Leaves succulent, alternating  up the stems, 0.3-0.6mm long, flattened narrow cylindrical, hairless.  Flowers tiny (less than 3mm across), solitary at the bases of the leaves.  Rare SA (var. deminutum).

In Osteocarpum acropterum acropterum var. acropterum the fruiting boy has one wing 2mm long, the other 3mm long.

 In Osteocarpum acropterum acropterum var. deminutumthe fruiting boy has one wing 2mm long, the other minute.

Descriptions (page 247) and line drawings of fruiting bodies (Figs. 45a, 45b, page 247) (as Babbagia acroptera) in G.M. Cunningham, WE Mulham, PL Milthorpe and J H Leigh (1981 and later printings) Plants of Western New South Wales

PlantNET description with line drawings of fruiting bodies:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Osteocarpum~acropterum