Maireana brevifolia

Maireana brevifolia, commonly known as small-leaf bluebush, eastern cotton bush or short-leaf bluebush^[2] is a species of flowering plant in the family Chenopodiaceae and is endemic to Australia, and naturalised in other countries. It is a bushy, erect or rounded shrub or short-lived perennial plant with scattered, fleshy egg-shaped to spindle-shaped leaves, bisexual flowers arranged singly, and a thick and fleshy fruiting perianth with fan-shaped wings.

Maireana brevifolia is a bushy, erect or rounded shrub or short-lived perennial plant that grows to a height of 0.2–1 m (7.9 in – 3 ft 3.4 in) and has thin branches, sparsely covered with woolly hairs. Its leaves are egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base to slender spindle-shaped, 2–5 mm (0.079–0.197 in) long, fleshy and glabrous. The flowers are bisexual and arranged singly and mostly glabrous. The fruiting perianth is glabrous, thin-walled and hemispherical, about 2 mm (0.079 in) in diameter with a faintly ten-ribbed tube and five papery, fan-shaped wings up to 2–3 mm (0.079–0.118 in) long.^{[2][3][4][5][6]}

This species was first described in 1810 by Robert Brown who gave it the name Kochia brevifolia in his Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae.^[7][8] In 1975, Paul G. Wilson transferred the species to Maireana as M. brevifolia in the journal Nuytsia.^[3][9] The specific epithet (brevifolia) means 'short-leaved'.^[10]

Maireana brevifolia grows in heavy, winter-wet and sometimes saline soils in the south-west of Western Australia,^[11] the banks of the upper Finke River in the south of the Northern Territory,^[6] the south-east of South Australia,^[12] Queensland,^[2] inland New South Wales^[4] and Victoria.^[5] It is one of the first species to appear in disturbed saline habitats.^[2][11]

Cotton bush is also naturalised in South Africa, the Middle East and the Canary Islands.^[13]