Einadia hastata (R.Br.) A.J.Scott

Chenopodiaceae

Scott, A.J. (1978) Feddes Repertorium 89 : 4.

Berry Saltbush; Saloop

Usually flowers and fruits as a shrub 1-2 m tall but also flowers when smaller.

Leaf blades with about 1-3 lateral veins. Leaf blades about 8-25 x 7-23 mm, petioles about 4-12 mm long, grooved on the upper surface. Twigs 4-angled or longitudinally ribbed.

Inflorescence a slender racemose panicle with scattered clusters of sessile flowers. Flowers small, about 1-2 mm diam. Apical flowers hermaphrodite. Lateral flowers female. Tepals hooded at the apex. Stamens one or two. Ovary globose, stigmas two, slender.

Calyx (or tepals) persistent, succulent, clasping the fruit. Fruits about 2-3 mm diam. Seeds flat, about 1.5 mm diam., testa grooved. Embryo coiled around the periphery of the seed. Cotyledons about as wide as the radicle but much shorter.

Cotyledons about 10-14 x 2 mm. Hypocotyl glabrous. First leaves +/- obovate, base truncate, margin entire, vesicular glands visible on the underside. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade +/- triangular, truncate or sagittate at the base, apex rounded. Underside of the leaf blade clothed in numerous small pale yellow glands. Similar glands also found on young shoots and terminal buds. Stem longitudinally ribbed or grooved. Seed germination time 44 to 124 days.

Occurs in NEQ, CEQ and also in a continuous belt from coastal central Queensland to Victoria. Altitudinal range in NEQ from 700-850 m. Grows in monsoon forest and vine thickets in NEQ but in a range of other habitats in the rest of its range.

Food plant for the larval stage of the Checkered Blue Butterfly.

Rhagodia hastata R.Br., Prod. : 408(1810), Type: New South Wales, Port Jackson, R. Brown; holo: BM?.