| Stat' | Notes | Thumbnails: 96. 16 native species listed, with 11 from Ellura |
| Plants (Plantae) - Land Plants (Charophyta) - Land Plants (Equisetopsida) - Small Bluebushes & Saltbushes | ||||||||
| Betalains Caryophyllales | Amaranth Amaranthaceae | Pink Mulla Mulla Ptilotus exaltatus iNaturalist | RA m | Thank you Darren Schmitke & Dr Timothy Hammer for identifying and Dr Miguel de Salas for helping with the id of this species for us Darren invited us to a local reserve to show us some stunning species exploding after a fire 2.5 years ago. When we found this Darren told us it was Mulla Mulla. However trying to nail down the binomial name presented a challenge. It turns out the taxonomy of Ptilotus has been a bit of a mess. Some on-line systems still haven't caught up. At one point this was P. exaltatus var exaltatus, then was moved to Ptilotus nobilis ssp. nobilis, but then the other sub-species of P. nobilis were moved elsewhere and this defaulted to P. nobilis. Miguel highlighted this to us on iNaturalist. Then Timothy wrote a paper clarifying it's taxonomic position back to P. exaltatus. Well at least the common name didn't change LOL | ||||
| Betalains Caryophyllales | Amaranth Amaranthaceae | Rabbit-tails Ptilotus seminudus iNaturalist | LC e m | Very variable in colour; from bright green to deep red. Main difference with Pussy Tails is the leaf shape. | ||||
| Betalains Caryophyllales | Amaranth Amaranthaceae | Pussy-tails Ptilotus spathulatus | LC e m |
Small sprawling forb with green, purple and red coloured leaves. The "flowers" grow on the end of long stems that lay on the ground well away from the root. They then stand up like little x-mas trees. The flowers are soft and don't have petals. They look more like seed heads. | ||||
| Betalains Caryophyllales | Goosefoot Chenopodiaceae | Cannonball Burr Dissocarpus paradoxus iNaturalist | LC r |
Similar Species: Woolly-fruit Bluebush (Eriochiton sclerolaenoides) A small plant that was abundant in the area. The burrs are quite large at ~12mm diameter (to the spine tips) and very distinctive; being a woolly ball. The flowers are petalless, with just long anthers poking out of the wool. The fruiting body then forms under the woolly ball. | ||||
| Betalains Caryophyllales | Goosefoot Chenopodiaceae | Climbing Saltbush Einadia nutans ssp nutans | LC e m |
Would never have picked this as a salt bush. We were convinced it was some sort of pea, related to the common flat-pea (Platylobium obtusangulum) because of the triangular / 3-point / spade / arrowhead leaves. But we were browsing through Entwood Sanctuary's species list, finding photo's on the web for species we haven't seen and there it was, triangular leaves with 3 points! Identified by chance, but we'll take the win Light green leaves going darker with age, tiny green ball flowers and bright red berry fruits. | ||||
| Betalains Caryophyllales | Goosefoot Chenopodiaceae | Woolly-fruit Bluebush Eriochiton sclerolaenoides | LC e m r |
Similar Species: Cannonball Burr (Dissocarpus paradoxus) | ||||
| Betalains Caryophyllales | Goosefoot Chenopodiaceae | Wingless Fissure-plant Maireana enchylaenoides | LC e m | |||||
| Betalains Caryophyllales | Goosefoot Chenopodiaceae | Lobed Bluebush Maireana lobiflora iNaturalist | RA e m | Thank you Dr Kym Nicolson & Dave Albrecht for helping with the id of this species for us We originally found 1 specimen (marked S1 here). Years later we found a patch with various specimens. S1 never returned but is marked to show the history of it. Maireana lobiflora has thin processes stemming vertically from the 5 lobed wing, and is woolly. We've never been happy with the id of these as we can't find any splits in the wing, let alone 5 lobes; but we put this down to the woolly nature of the fruit. The similar Maireana lanosa has a single split, but is sparsely woolly. We do note, however, the wing is 5 sided (on our specimens), a pentagon of sorts. This is not obvious from above, and the sides aren't straight. We assumed, incorrectly, that the fuit possibly split later forming the 5 lobes. But a fruit we kept for a year never split. We also noted that the specimens we find are generally prostrate with the ends of the stems lifting vertically near the tips, laden with fruit; almost akin to Ptilotus habit. However, we do find examples where they are small & vertical (possibly grazed, changing the habit), or totally prostrate. Size is quite variable in width, recording ~220mm wide (often smaller), and ~30mm high (at the ends). In the centre it's closer to 10mm, so a very small "bush". The fruit is up to 6mm wide, with leaves between ~2-5mm Generally the fruit appears at the end of the stems. At times it appears to be in the middle of a stem, but in these cases the main stem often branches with the fruit on a separate short stem. But there are occasional single fruits along the main stem. Dave Albrecht, from CSIRO, kindly contacted us and let us know these are actually an undefined species, which he is currently working on describing. We shall leave it named as is for the time being to help people find these pages until Dave completes his work and finallises the new name for them | ||||
| Betalains Caryophyllales | Goosefoot Chenopodiaceae | Hairy-fruit Bluebush Maireana trichoptera iNaturalist | LC e m r |
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| Betalains Caryophyllales | Goosefoot Chenopodiaceae | Buckbush Salsola australis iNaturalist | LC m |
Thank you Andrew Allanson for identifying this species for us What an intriguing plant this is. Long considered to be an introduced plant, studies proved this to be a native and various forms of it have been DNA tested and all link back to the same species. It has petalless flowers, that can be green or red, with 5-lobed pale-green fruits somewhat similar to bluebush (Maireana sp); which makes sense as it's in the same family (Chenopodiaceae). It's instantly recognisable in broad acre farming regions from the car, but looks incredibly different in it's early stages & smaller sizes. It isn't so wide spread in native habitats. Generally considered a pest, but a native just the same that should not be removed from native sites. It has as many common names as habits | ||||
| Betalains Caryophyllales | Goosefoot Chenopodiaceae | Small-winged Bindyi Sclerolaena brachyptera | RA e m | A small woolly bindyi with tiny flowers. Bindyi's are not renowned for their beauty, but this one is an exception. The tops, or heads, always look brilliant white due to the mass of silvery hairs crowning the stems. | ||||
| Betalains Caryophyllales | Goosefoot Chenopodiaceae | Small-leaf Bindyi Sclerolaena brevifolia | RA e m r |
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| Betalains Caryophyllales | Goosefoot Chenopodiaceae | Grey Bindyi Sclerolaena diacantha iNaturalist | LC e m |
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| Betalains Caryophyllales | Goosefoot Chenopodiaceae | Oblique-spined Bindyi Sclerolaena obliquicuspis | LC e m r |
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| Betalains Caryophyllales | Goosefoot Chenopodiaceae | Small-flower Bindyi Sclerolaena parviflora iNaturalist | LC m |
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| Betalains Caryophyllales | Goosefoot Chenopodiaceae | Samphire Tecticornia sp | RA m | |||||
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