Lawrencia Helmsii At Lake Austin Salt Lake, Western Australia.

Summary

Book caption: In some lake beds gypsum predominates over common salt and gives rise to a suite of plants tolerant of it. This is particularly the case at Lake Austin near Cue, where the most striking and conspicuous gypsum plant is Lawrencia helmsii. The stems are covered with a dense mass of tightly curled succulent leaves making the plant look at first sight like a leafless stem-succulent cactus or euphorbia. Actually it belongs to the hibiscus family, the Malvaceae, and its seedlings in early life have tiny petiolate hibiscus-like leaves.