Fruiting bodies and leaves. Australian Plant Image Index, photo: Murray Fagg, Australian National Botanic Gardens, ACT

Fruiting bodies and leaves. Photo: Else Foster, Mungo National Park, NSW

Common Name

Pop Saltbush

Family

Chenopodiaceae

Notes

Annual or short-lived perennial forb to 40cm tall.  Leaves flat, 1.5-7cm long, broadly oval or diamond-shaped to almost circular, scurfy, margins entire or toothed to lobed, with blunt or pointed tips.  Flowers tiny (less than 3mm across), male and female flowers on the same plant, in clusters at the bases of the leaves.  Vulnerable Vic.  Threatened list Vic.

Differs from Atriplex spongiosa in that the leaves have conspicuous stalks, and the fruiting bodies are 4-8-12mm long.

Description and photo (page 239) and line drawing of fruiting body (page 242 Fig. 44-9) in G.M. Cunningham, WE Mulham, PL Milthorpe and J H Leigh (1981 and later printings) Plants of Western New South Wales

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