Maireana appressa
(Benth.) Paul G.Wilson Grey BluebushErect, grey shrub to c. 70 cm high; stems densely white-woolly. Leaves alternate, mostly appressed to branches at least when young, linear to narrowly ovate, 2–8 mm long, subterete, rather densely covered with white, short curled hairs. Flowers bisexual, glabrous or perianth lobes sparsely ciliate along margins. Fruiting perianth 9–13 mm diam., flat at apex with margins of perianth lobes upcurved forming 5 radial ridges; tube hemispherical to broadly obconical with narrowed stipe-like base, c. 3 mm diam., thin-walled, point of attachment immersed within base and usually oblique; wing undulate, papery, indistinctly veined; radicular slit apparent on wing, represented on tube as a narrow ridge. Fruits mostly Aug.–Oct.
LoM, MuM, VRiv, MSB, RobP. Also WA, NT, SA, Qld, NSW. Locally common in Victoria on subsaline flats and depressions and margins of salt lakes north and west from about Ouyen, with outlying occurrences to the south-east near Sea Lake (Lake Tyrell). Occasionally colonizing disturbed ground.
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.
Spinning
