Flora of New Zealand Series

salt bush

Monoecious, erect, bushy, ± grey or whitish farinose annual to c. 1 m tall. Stems terete or nearly so, pale yellowish, stout, woody towards base. Petioles to c. 1 cm long; lamina 2.5 × 1.5-4 cm, rhombic-triangular or rhombic-ovate, to lanceolate towards stem apices, deeply and irregularly dentate; base narrow- to broad-cuneate; apex acute; infl. lvs similar but smaller. Fls in axillary glomerules and short terminal spikes; spikes leafy almost to the apex. ♂ fls maturing well before ♀; perianth c. 1 mm long, pale with indistinct margin; segments incurved. ♀ fls: bracteoles c. 1.5 mm long at anthesis, rhombic-triangular or rhombic, united below middle, dentate (teeth 1 or few on each side), strongly accrescent. Fruiting bracteoles 3-4 × 3-4 mm, conspicuously veined, indurate towards base, with several tubercle appendages around middle. Fr. 1.5-2 mm diam., circular or nearly so, laterally flattened; pericarp easily removed. Testa brown.

S.: confined to C. Otago (Alexandra area, Ophir, Cromwell, Crawford Hills and Butcher's Dam on the road to Roxburgh).

S., C. and E. Europe 1969

Waste ground, especially along roadsides and railways, sometimes abundant.

FL Jan-Mar.

The bushy shrub-like habit make salt bush conspicuous and easily recognisable. In Europe it has culinary and reputed medicinal uses.