Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Rhagodia ulicina
Common name
Spiny Goosefoot
Family
Chenopodiaceae
Where found
Mallee, shrubland, grassy sites, and rocky areas. Western Slopes.
Notes
Shrub to 1 m tall. Spine tipped branchlets. Leaves fleshy. Fruit usually fleshy. Young branches covered with inflated hairs that often collapse and form a mealy layer on the surface. Leaves alternating up the stems, often clustered, 0.2-1 cm long, 1–3 mm wide, often mealy to scurfy, dull green to greyish. Sometimes leafless. Male and female flowers on different plants. Male flowers green, scurfy on the outside, female flowers with scurfy green ovaries and red styles. Flowers 1–1.5 mm in diameter, with 5 perianth lobes united at the base, in 1-5 flowered clusters. Fruit red to purple, usually initially enclosed by the mealy greyish fleshy enlarged 'petals', to about 2 mm in diameter.
Rare Vic.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Rhagodia~ulicina (accessed 4 February, 2021)
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