Fruit and leaves. Australian Plant Image Index, photo: Murray Fagg, Kalyarr National Park, NSW

Fruit. Photo: Don Wood, Scotia Sanctuary, NSW

Female flowers and leaves. Photo: Don Wood, Scotia Sanctuary, NSW

Flowering shrub. Photo: Don Wood, Scotia Sanctuary, NSW

Common Name

Thorny Saltbush, Spiny Saltbush, Berry Saltbush, Hedge Saltbush, Creeping Saltbush

Family

Chenopodiaceae

Notes

Shrub to 3m tall.  Older branchlets often spine-tipped.  Leaves more or less opposite each other, sometimes with pointed lobes at the base, 0.5-2cm long, flat, scurfy, with blunt tips.  Male and female flowers on different plants.  Flowers tiny (less than 3mm across), green, in spikes or panicles.  Fruit pink, orange, or red to purple.

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 pages 278-279

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