Spent flower and leaves. Photo: Russell Best, Murray Sunset National Park, Vic

Fruiting body and leaf. Photo: Russell Best, Wyperfeld National Park.

Fruiting bodies and leaves. Photo: Russell Best, Wyperfeld National Park.

Plant. Photo: Russell Best, Wyperfeld National Park.

Common Name

Sand Twinleaf

Family

Zygophyllaceae

Notes

Annual forb to 20cm tall or sprawling.  Leaves opposite each other, with two succulent lobes or leaflets 1-2.5cm long, 2-6mm wide, flat, hairless, with notched or blunt tips, sometimes with a tiny point.  Flowers often small (less than 3mm across), yellow or white, with 4 petals, borne singly at the bases of the leaves.  Fruiting body with 4 angles.

Differs from Zygophyllum simile in that the flowers have 4 stamens (difficult to tell without a microscope).

Description and photo (page 438), and line drawing of fruiting body (Fig. 53a page 440) 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 drawing and photo of dried specimen: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Zygophyllum~ammophilum