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

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

Spent flower and leaves. Photo: Don Wood, Scotia Sanctuary, NSW

Fruit and leaves. Photo: Don Wood, Gluepot Reserve, SA

Shrub. Photo: Don Wood, Scotia Sanctuary, NSW

Common Name

Spiny Goosefoot

Family

Chenopodiaceae

Notes

Shrub to 1m tall.  Spiny branchlets.  Leaves fleshy, alternating up the stems, 0.2-1cm long, flat to narrow and flat, scurfy.  Sometimes leafless.  Male and female flowers on different plants.  Flowers tiny (less than 3mm across), male flowers green, scurfy on the outside, female flowers with scurfy green ovaries and red styles.  Flowers in short one-branched or unbranched arrangements at the ends of, or along the branchlets, or in clusters at the bases of the leaves.  Fruit red to purple.  Rare Vic.

Description and photo (as Chenopodium ulicinum) in G.M. Cunningham, WE Mulham, PL Milthorpe and J H Leigh (1981 and later printings) Plants of Western New South Wales page 263

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