Chenopodium australe R. Brown, Prodr. 407. 1810.

Shrubs small, 20-50 cm tall. Stems much branched, usually bearing adventitious roots below, gray-brown to light yellow, leaf scars remaining distinct. Leaves usually obliquely spreading, gray-green or reddish purple, linear, straight or slightly curved, semiterete, 1-2.5 cm × 2-3 mm, base attenuate, articulated, apex acute or obtuse; upper leaves shorter, narrowly ovate to elliptic, abaxially convex, adaxially plane. Glomerules axillary, 1-5-flowered. Flowers bisexual. Perianth green or reddish purple, slightly depressed, 5-parted, somewhat fleshy; segments ovate-oblong, thickened in fruit, veinless, margin submembranous. Anthers broadly ovate, ca. 0.5 mm. Style obscure; stigmas 2, not recurved, yellow-brown to black-brown, nearly subulate, papillate. Utricle depressed globose; pericarp membranous, free from seed. Seed black-brown, sublustrous, lenticular, 0.8-1 mm in diam., slightly pitted. Fl. and fr. Jul-Nov.

Mangrove forest margins, sandy places on beaches, seashores. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Jiangsu, Taiwan [S Japan; SE Asia, Australia].