Maireana sedifolia
(F.Muell.) Paul G.Wilson Pearl BluebushRather dense silvery shrub to c. 1 m high, dioecious; branchlets closely woolly-tomentose. Leaves alternate, clavate or narrowly obovoid, 4–9 mm long, fleshy, covered with hairs like those of the stems, tawny when young. Flowers paired, but usually one aborting, closely woolly, the males hemispherical, females globular. Fruiting perianth 10–13 mm diam., finely woolly except for glabrescent wing, flat to slightly convex at apex, light brown at maturity; tube hemispherical to obconical, 2–3 mm diam. at apex, firm but thin-walled, point of attachment slightly immersed; wing circular with erose margins, radicular slit apparent on wing, not or shortly extending down tube. Fruits mostly Aug.–Oct.
LoM, MuM, VRiv, MSB, RobP, MuF. Also WA, NT, SA, NSW. In Victoria confined to a few sites with loamy, often limestone-rich soils in the far north-west (Lake Tyrell, Red Cliffs, Merbein, South Australian border region) but sometimes locally common.
Walsh, N.G. (1996). Chenopodiaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 3, Dicotyledons Winteraceae to Myrtaceae, pp. 129–199. Inkata Press, Melbourne.