Einadia nutans subsp. nutans
Nodding SaltbushProstrate, sprawling to semi-scandent, branches to c. 80 cm long. Leaves acute, ovate or triangular, usually hastate at base, c. 5–25 mm long, 2–20 mm wide. Panicle usually to c. 10 cm long. Fruit depressed-globular; pericarp yellow or red at maturity; fruiting sepals spreading or remaining appressed to berry. Flowers mostly Sep.–Jan.
LoM, MuM, Wim, VVP, VRiv, MSB, RobP, MuF, GipP, OtP, WaP, Gold, CVU, GGr, DunT, NIS, EGL, EGU, HSF, MonT. Occurs almost throughout Victoria in dryish, often rocky sites, often persisting in disturbed sites from which other native vegetation has been eliminated.
The distinction between subsp. nutans and subsp. linifolia is not always clear, but the latter is currently known only from north-central Victoria near the New South Wales border where sometimes sympatric with subsp. nutans. While not referred to in original descriptions the different fruit shapes appear to be diagnostic for the 2 Victorian subspecies. Some specimens here referred to subsp. nutans may have leaves with reduced basal lobes, particularly near the inflorescences. Such specimens were probably the source of a wider distribution sometimes attributed to subsp. linifolia in the past.
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
