Synonyms: Halosarcia APNI*
Description: Erect or spreading small annual or perennial herbs or shrubs.
Leaves opposite, succulent or reduced to scarious lobes.
Inflorescence terminal or lateral, spike-like, with opposite pairs of (1-)3(-7)-flowered cymulesin the axils of bracts or distributed along the vegetative stems. Flowers sessile, bisexual or occasionally femail, andromonoecious (bisexual central floret with male lateral florets) or the plant dioecious; perianth lobes 2, with or without 1 abaxial; stamen 1; ovary 2(-3)-lobed.
Seed white, gold, brown or black, with or without a beak; orientation horizontal, vertical or rotated laterally; embyro straight or curved; perisperm abundant, generally lateral.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 33 species. Australia: 33 species, all endemic except T. australasica and two subspecies of T. indica. Usually in saline areas, either arid or coastal.
Text by S. W. L. Jacobs (1990); edited KL Wilson (Feb 2011) Taxon concept: Flora of NSW vol 1 (1990); KA Shepherd & PG Wilson (2007)
| Key to the species | |
1 | Seeds smooth and glossy all over; articles with Kranz (C4) anatomy or non-Kranz (C3) anatomy | 2 |
| Seeds variously tuberculate or ribbed around the edge, smooth or ornamented on the sides; articles with non-Kranz (C3) anatomy | 3 |
2 | Margins of leaf lobes finely toothed or finely ciliate (rarely entire); articles with Kranz (C4) anatomy; perianth pithy in fruit | Halosarcia indica |
| Margins of leaf lobes entire; articles with non-Kranz (C3) anatomy; perianth thin and brittle in fruit Back to 1 | Halosarcia pruinosa |
3 | Seeds with deep concentric ridges or colliculate all over | 4 |
| Seeds ribbed, tuberculate or colliculate around the margins, the sides mostly smooth Back to 1 | 5 |
4 | Seeds brown to reddish brown to black, concentrically colliculate all over | Halosarcia pergranulata |
| Seeds pale fawn to cream, deeply concentrically ribbed all over, the tips of the rib cells sometimes free, forming curved to hooked hairs Back to 3 | Halosarcia pterygospermum |
5 | Seeds pale brown with tuberculate ribs around the margins | Halosarcia halocnemoides |
| Seeds reddish brown, colliculate (± ribbed) around the margins Back to 3 | 6 |
6 | Branches and spikes succulent and swollen; projecting or undulate in outline | Halosarcia pluriflora |
| Branches very slender (not swollen); smooth in outline (as in Casuarinaceae) Back to 5 | Halosarcia lylei |
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