Dysphania myriocephala, Benth

George Bentham & Ferdinand Mueller, 1870, Chenopodium & Dysphania, Flora Australiensis, London: L. Reeve & Co., pp. 157-165 : -1

3. D. myriocephala, Benth .

A diffuse or procumbent glabrous or slightly glandular-pubescent annual, much larger than the two preceding species, although the ascending branching stems rarely exceed 6 in. Leaves petiolate, oblong or lanceolate, obtuse or scarcely acute, rarely above ¼ in. long. Flower-clusters all axillary and distinct, very numerous, occupying the greater part of the plant, globular and scarcely exceeding 1 line in diameter when in fruit, and often much smaller, although containing 10 to 20 or even more flowers, chiefly females, with a very few hermaphrodite or male ones. Segments of the fruiting perianth single and falling off separately, about line long', obovoid-clavate and as it were inflated, shortly contracted at the base. Seed ovoid like that of D. littoralis , but more regular and slightly flattened; styles 2, very fine, but shorter than the single one of D. littoralis . Stamens 1 or 2, with very short broad filaments and comparatively large anthers. - D. littoralis, Moq . in DC. Prod. xiii. ii. 86, not of R. Br.

Victoria. Sandy occasionally flooded banks of the Murray near the junction of the Golgol, F. Mueller.

W. Australia, Drummond, n. 206. Moquin's description is taken from a specimen of Drummond's in which he had correctly observed the two styles, but in which 1 have always found in every cluster as many or nearly as many fruits as enlarged perianth-segments, but as these fall off separately, it is difficult to ascertain whether there may not sometimes be two to one fruit. Moquin in describing three has probably followed Brown's character founded on the true D. littoralis .