CAT-00061
Ruby saltbush
Enchylaena tomentosa
Catalog fields
- Genus
- Enchylaena
- Photo
- Not recorded
- Edible
- Yes
- layout
- single
- Habitat
- Occurs principally in slightly saline soil.
- Published
- Yes
- Food group
- Fruit
- Latin name
- Enchylaena tomentosa
- Fruit photo
- Not recorded
- Plant title
- Ruby saltbush
- Source URLs
- https://profiles.ala.org.au/opus/foa/profile/Enchylaena%20tomentosa | https://tuckerbush.com.au/ruby-saltbush-enchylaena-tomentosa/; https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn%3Alsid%3Aipni.org%3Anames%3A165574-1; https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/flora/taxon/3d0179b1-d702-4dce-99a3-d418151f4baa Open source ↗ Open source 2 ↗ Open source 3 ↗ Open source 4 ↗
- Catalogue ID
- CAT-00061
- Mature width
- 1m
- Native range
- Widespread in mainland Australia where it is endemic; naturalised in New Caledonia.
- Plant family
- Amaranthaceae
- Supplier SKU
- Not recorded
- Listing group
- Nursery-listed / regional edible
- Mature height
- 1m
- Native states
- NSW, NT, QLD, SA, VIC, WA
- Original list
- No
- Research date
- 10/10/2026
- Research notes
- Profile enriched from botanical/nursery sources. Dimensions are unpruned regional estimates where available; missing measurements remain explicit. Seasons are regional guides and vary with climate, location, cultivar and plant maturity. Drought and cultivation guidance are qualitative garden inferences, not measured ratings.
- Evidence status
- Nursery food-use source; preparation detail review pending
- Fruiting season
- Potentially throughout year.
- Background photo
- Not recorded
- Edible component
- Ripe berries
- Flowering season
- Potentially throughout year in suitable conditions.
- Brief description
- Spreading grey-green shrub with succulent leaves.
- Drought tolerance
- High once established.
- Preparation notes
- Use ripe yellow-red fleshy fruit; leaves are high in oxalates and require separate preparation guidance.
- Flower description
- Very small, inconspicuous flowers, usually solitary in leaf axils.
- General cultivation
- General guidance (qualitative): Promising sunny groundcover or shrub with drainage.
- Botanical description
- Lax shrub c. 1 m high, densely woolly with short curled hairs to shortly villous or glabrous, sometimes glaucous. Leaves slender, terete or fusiform, 7–20 mm long. Perianth tube glabrous; lobes glabrous or pubescent, woolly-ciliate. Fruiting perianth depressed-globular, c. 5 mm diam., green, yellow, or red, drying black; apex flat or deeply sunken in centre, glabrous or woolly; wing absent or represented by an incurved undulate corona up to 1 mm high.
- Other botanical names
- Not recorded
- Attracts birds and bugs
- Native bees and insects visit flowers; canopy shelters birds.
- Flora of Australia profile
- https://profiles.ala.org.au/opus/foa/profile/Enchylaena%20tomentosa Open source ↗
- Fruit type and description
- Small yellow to red fleshy fruits, around 5-8 mm.
- Flora of Australia citation
- Paul G. Wilson. Enchylaena tomentosa. Flora of Australia, Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, Canberra. https://profiles.ala.org.au/opus/foa/profile/Enchylaena%20tomentosa (accessed 2026-10-14). Copyright Commonwealth of Australia; CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). HTML formatting removed; species-level context added where noted. Open source ↗ Open source 2 ↗
- Flora of Australia retrieved
- 14/10/2026