Sclerolaena divaricata
(R.Br.) Sm. Tangled CopperburrSemi-erect subshrub to c. 70 cm high, branchlets glabrous except area surrounding leaf-bases. Leaves linear, c. 10 mm long, flat or slightly concave on upper surface, shortly acuminate at apex, grey-green, glabrous or with a few scattered hairs along narrowly winged lower margin. Fruiting perianth glabrous, straw-coloured, 2.5–4 mm long, obliquely attached and decurrent along branch, attachment concave; limb incurved, not or barely exserted above spine-bases; spines 4, yellowish, widely divergent, the 3 longer spines abaxial or lateral, 5–16 mm long, the shorter adaxially placed and 1–4 mm long. Fruits present most of year.
LoM, MuM, Wim, MSB, RobP, MuF. Also SA, NSW. In Victoria apparently confined to heavy grey clay soils on the Murray River floodplain downstream from about Merbein in the far north-west (e.g. Walpolla and Lindsay Islands, Lake Wallawalla). A specimen at MEL labelled 'Kulkyne, 1928' is of uncertain origin.
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
