Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Atriplex semibaccata
Common name
Creeping saltbush, Berry saltbush
Family
Chenopodiaceae
Where found
Roadsides and disturbed sites, sometimes lake margins. Widespread. Probably native to the Western Slopes and introduced to the rest of the area covered by this key. Regarded as introduced to the ACT.
Notes
Shrub or perennial herb, prostrate, sometimes semi-erect, to 1 m diameter or about 0.40 m high. Stems mealy at least when young. Leaves 0.6-3 cm long, 2–15 mm wide, green and almost hairless above, scurfy or scaly below, margins entire or toothed. Male and female flowers on the same plant, tiny (less than 3 mm in diameter), Male flowers with 5 'petals', lacking bracteoles. Female flowers usually with 0 'petals', but subtended by a pair of bracteoles which enlarge and cover the seed case at maturity. Flowers in clusters. Fruit dry (in NSW and ACT) or fleshy and red (ACT, and usually outside NSW).
Hybridises with Atriplex spinibractea where the two species occur together.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Atriplex~semibaccata (accessed 4 January, 2021)
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