Plants of
South Australia
Trianthema triquetra
Aizoaceae
Small Hogweed
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Hawker
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Botanical art

Kath Alcock paintings: 5

Etymology

Trianthema from the Greek 'treis' meaning three and 'anthemon' meaning flower; referring to the flowers sometimes growing in 3's in the axils of the leaves. Triquetra from the Latin 'triquetrus' meaning three edged or three angled.

Distribution and status

Found in the northern part of South Australia, growing on sandy soil. Also found in Western Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland and New South Wales. Native. Common in South Australia. Common in the other states.
Herbarium regions: North Western, Lake Eyre, Gairdner-Torrens, Flinders Ranges, Eastern, Eyre Peninsula
NRM regions: Alinytjara Wilurara, Eyre Peninsula, South Australian Arid Lands
AVH map: SA distribution map (external link)

Plant description

Prostrate or ascending, diffuse herb with stems to 60 cm long with short lateral branches, finely warty or glabrous. Leaves terete to clavate or oblanceolate to linear, leaf blade to 30 mm long and 4 mm wide, petiole to 2 mm long, expanded into a toothed sheath. Flower white to pink. Flowers throughout the year. Fruits are small brown capsule to 2 mm long, enclosed in the perianth, thickened and cup-shaped at the summit, with the style in the middle of the depression. Seeds are dark brown to black reinform seed to 1.2 mm long and 1 mm wide, with wrinkled surface. Seed embryo type is peripheral.

Seed collection and propagation

Collect seeds between January and December. Collect capsules that are maturing, turning brown and contain hard dark seeds. Collection individual capsules or break off whole stems. Place the capsules/stems in a tray for a week to dry. Then rub the capsules gently with your hands to dislodge the seeds. Use a sieve to separate the unwanted material. Store the seeds with a desiccant such as dried silica beads or dry rice, in an air tight container in a cool and dry place. From one collection, the seed viability was average, at 60%.

Seeds stored:
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LocationNo. of seeds
(weight grams)
Number
of plants
Date
collected
Collection number
Collection location
Date
stored
% ViabilityStorage
temperature
BGA16,000 (15.13 g)304-Apr-2007RJB71359
Eastern
19-Sep-200860%-18°C
BGA 
MSB
43,000 (19.09 g)
26,000 (15.97 g)
2022-Apr-2015DJD3111
Flinders Ranges
1-Jan-201675%-18°C
BGA36,000 (16.11 g)20-Apr-2015DJD3108
Flinders Ranges
1-Jan-201675%-18°C
Location: BGA — the seeds are stored at the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, MSB — the seeds are stored at the Millennium Seed Bank, Kew, England.
Number of plants: This is the number of plants from which the seeds were collected.
Collection location: The Herbarium of South Australia's region name.
% Viability: Percentage of filled healthy seeds determined by a cut test or x-ray.