Home Search By Name Browse NT Flora NT Specimen Data Regional & Ecological Floras Threatened Species Introduced Species NT Species List Help page


Maireana schistocarpa Paul G.Wilson
AMARANTHACEAE
Synonymy
Common Name: Maireana
Description: A spreading shrub to about 1 m high. The current seasons stems have a covering of simple hairs. The leaves are alternate, succulent, linear to oblong, subterete to planoconvex or slightly flattened, 5-26 mm long, 0.5-1.5 mm wide, with simple hairs of sparse to medium density. The flowers are solitary or rarely paired in the leaf axils, and have a perianth that is much reduced with the number of segments not easily determined. The true fruit is enclosed within a persistent fruiting perianth 10-17 mm wide, which consists of a hairy conspicuously raised 'upper perianth' in the central region of the fruit on the upper side, surrounded by a hairy or rarely glabrous transverse wing with a single radial slit, and a hairy obconical tube below the wing. The tube may have a single weak vertical wing aligned with the slit in the horizontal wing. The fruiting perianth is straw coloured when fully mature.
Diagnostic Characters: Maireana schistocarpa is a relatively distinctive species recognised by a combination of the above features, of which its strongly raised upper perianth and usually hairy wing are particularly salient features.
Whole plant (or habit)
Image: A. Schubert
Whole plant (or habit)
Image: D.E. Albrecht
Fruit
Image: A. Schubert
Fruit
Image: A. Schubert

Distribution

  • Legend:
  • Specimen Icon Specimens
  • Observation Icon Observations
  • Specimen Cultivar Icon Cultivated
Introduced Status: Native to NT
Bioregion: Burt Plain, Finke, MacDonnell Ranges

Habitat: Occurs on gravelly rises, low hills and breakaways composed of neutral, acidic or basic rocks, Chenopod-rich plains, intermittent watercourses, and interzones between saline and gypysum habitats. In other arid NT bioregions it also occurs on Gidgee-dominated calcareous plains.

Ecological Attributes

Flowering: Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep
Fruiting: Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov

Other Attributes

Conservation Status (TPWCA): Least Concern
Restricted Range Taxon: N
NT Parks: Owen Springs Reserve, Tjoritja / West MacDonnell National Park
Flora Description Source: Unpublished notes prepared for FloraNT
Taxonomic Literature: Flora of Central Australia, 1981

PDF Factsheet Print Friendly
Specimens
© Northern Territory Government 2013