Atriplex cinerea
CHENOPODIACEAE
Coast Saltbush, Grey Saltbush
A common small to medium shrub up to waist tall found along the high tide areas & coastal sand dunes.
Silvery grey, soft, narrow ovate leaves with scales, 5 to 7 cm long.
Flowering from June to December, this photo was taken at Lady Bay in July. Pictured is the male flower a purplish, dense, globular cluster at the ends of branches. Female flowers occur along the stems, cream yellowish in colour.
Fruit is triangular/rhomboid shaped with a rounded base, 1-3mm long holding within a seed to 2mm.
Collect seed by gloved hand by stripping or shaking the branch into a container in warm, dry weather. Seed germination can be enhanced by soaking for 1 hour or rinsing for several minutes to remove the spongey material, alternatively by sowing the entire fruit just below propagation soil that has been mixed with soil taken from around the parent plant from Autumn to Spring.
Indigenous people ate the salty leaves raw or blanched them. A popular plant with birds & reptiles.