Intricate Saltbush
Spiny Habit
Murray Mallee Region
Twiggy Lignum
Flowering
 
                      
Intricate Saltbush (Rhagodia ulicina)Class: Plants (Plantae) - Land Plants (Charophyta) - Land Plants (Equisetopsida)
Order: Betalains (Caryophyllales)
Family: Goosefoot (Chenopodiaceae)     iNaturalist Observation
Species: Intricate Saltbush (Rhagodia ulicina)
This Photo:     🔍Female Flowers🔎
Other names: Spiny Goosefoot or Spiny Saltbush

General Species Information:
Found in the Murray Mallee SA, Riverland and possibly elsewhere
Small leaves, ~2-5mm. A medium sized, grey-green shrub with many branching stems
Young stems are red.
In winter/spring the leaves hide the branches quite well but as the season dries some of the leaves fall off leaving a spiny looking habit.
The overal shape of the bush seems quite variable, possibly due to grazing from herbivours.
This is a dioecious species, ie a specimen is either male or female. Only the female plants produce fruit.
Like other Rhagodia's, the fruit is a red berry.

Copyright © 2019-2024 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 15-Oct-2019
This species is classed as LC (Least Concern) in the Murray Mallee, SA, by DENR (Regional Species Status Assessments, July 2010)