Salt Groundsel

Scientific Name:

Senecio halophilus

Status:

Native to South Australia and Victoria.

Plant Description:

An erect, herb, to 40 cm tall, with scattered hairs. The mildly stem-clasping, leaves are narrow-elliptic to oblanceolate (backward spear-shaped), mostly 2–7 cm long, undivided or with 3 lobes on each side.

Inflorescence (flower-head) branched. Each ‘flower’ is actually a composite of female, outer ray florets (‘petals’) and bisexual, inner tubular or disk florets. The whole composite ‘flower’ is enclosed in an involucre, 5-7 mm long, 2-3.5 mm diameter and consisting of 8-13 phyllaries. The fruit is a narrow-obloid achene, 2-3 mm long and more or less covered in hairs, which divert at the summit.

Habitat:

Western to south-western Victoria, on the margins of inland salt lakes and coastal marshes.

Region	Salinity Class	Waterlogging Class
Mallee, Wimmera, Western, Gippsland	S1, S2, S3	W2, W3

Comments:

Until recently (2005), this species has been undescribed or considered a form of Slender Groundsel (Senecio glossanthus). The composite flowers have a larger involucre and longer achene hairs on the disc florets, than in Slender Groundsel.

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