The ruby saltbush is one of the large group of Chenopods found throughout Fowlers Gap and indeed Australia. The ruby saltbush is relatively rare on Fowlers Gap, and has only been observed on the stony ridges that make up the central part of the Station, overlooking Lake Bancannia to the east.

Ruby saltbushes are spreading decumbent shrubs less than 1 m high. The fruits are edible, but don't seem to be of any nutritional benefit. Charles Sturt's expedition consumed the fruits of the ruby saltbush but still suffered from scurvy (a vitamin C deficiency disease), proving that the fruits did NOT contain vitamin C as they were so believed. They would have been better off eating quandongs.

Bark: stems are glabrous to woolly.
Leaves: and stems are glabrous to woolly, terete and 7-20 mm long, greyish.
Flowers: small.
Fruit: succulent, fleshy, about 5 mm across, flattened-globular with a sunken apex, green turning bright yellow or red, finally black.
Source: Frank Kutsche and Brendan Lay (2003). Field guide to the plants of outback South Australia. Department of Water, Land and Biodiversity Conservation, South Australia, ISBN 0 7590 1052 8.
Phillip Moore (2005). A guide to plants of inland Australia. Reed New Holland, ISBN 1 876334 86 X.
Photos: Ian Roach

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