Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Dysphania melanocarpa

Plant. Photographer Mark Marathon, unknown place

Common name

Black Crumbweed

Family

Chenopodiaceae

Where found

Dry forest, woodland, and disturbed sites. Sydney area. Western Slopes.

Notes

Annual herb, prostrate or sometimes to 0.8 m tall, covered in glandular or other hairs.  Leaves aromatic when rubbed, alternating along the stems, to about 3 cm long, sticky-hairy, margins entire to toothed or lobed, and flat or wavy.  Flowers bisexual or female, usually black or dark brown but sometimes light-coloured, about 1.5 mm in diameter, with 5 'petals' fused to about halfway. 'Petals' with a blunt, hairy, almost triangular keel in the upper half, the tops of the keels forming a flat plane at the tips of the flowers. Flowers in dense clusters. Seed cases turning black when mature. 

Was Chenopodium melanocarpum.

PlantNET description with line drawing:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Dysphania~melanocarpa (accessed 14 April 2021)

FloraBase photos:  https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au/browse/photo/33479  (accessed 14 October 2019)