Common name: Lax Bluebush
Maireana suaedifolia (Paul G.Wilson) Paul G.Wilson APNI* Description: Open, spreading, dark bluish-green subshrub mostly to 0.5 m high (to 2.5 m), glabrous except for small tufts of wool in leaf axils. Branches slender, striate, glaucous, dark purple (to slate grey) when dry.
Alternate and well spaced, succulent, narrower at base, those on fruiting branches fusiform and ca. 5 mm long, on main branches slender terete and up to 25 mm long.
Hermaphrodite, solitary, glabrous, subtended by a pair of lanceolate bracteoles ca. 1 mm long.
Fruiting perianth glabrous, pink when fresh; tube thin walled, shortly hemispherical, ca. 3 mm diameter, faintly costate; attachment small, not hollowed; wing chartaceous, horizontal, simple with a single radial slit extending slightly down tube. Utricle plano-convex (flat above) glabrous.
Distribution and occurrence: Few collections but appears to normally grow in slightly saline soils. Widely distributed but now rare due to it being readily eaten by stock.
NSW subdivisions: SFWP
Poorly represented in herbaria. Similar to M. decalvans but differing in having completely glabrous branchlets, fusiform leaves (which are conspicuously narrowed at the base) and bibracteolate flowers
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data
***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
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