Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Salsola australis
Common name
Prickly Saltwort, Soft Buckbush, Roly-poly
Family
Chenopodiaceae
Where found
Variety of vegetation communities, often a colonizing species in dry or somewhat saline areas. Coastal. Western Slopes. Rarely elsewhere.
Notes
Annual or biennial herb to 1 m tall. Spine-tipped leaves. Young stems and leaves fleshy. Stems hairless or sparsely rough hairy, sometimes warty. Leaves mostly alternating up the stems, 0.5–4 cm long, 0.5–6 mm wide, leaf bases continuing down the stems, cylindrical or trangular in cross section, hairless or rough, margins sometimes sparsely bristly or warty, tips with a sharp point. Flowers with 5 perianth segments (3 outer, 2 inner) 2–4 mm long, free from each other or shortly united at the base. Flowers usually single, sometimes in open or condensed spikes towards the ends of the branches. Seed cases pale green to cream, becoming straw-coloured, pink, or translucent with dark brown veins, usually with a horizontal wing consisting of five lobes. Dry plants often break off at the base and blow away intact, the seed cases dropping off as they roll.
Uncertain Status (native or naturalised) in the ACT.
Salsola tragus in Vic.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Salsola~australis (accessed 26 January 2021)
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