Speaking of Strange Plants

[rod1949]

There is a patch of these eerie looking salt tolerant plants that grow on the edge of Lake Barlee. Lake Barlee is the largest salt lake in Western Australia

[artme]

Love stuphph like this! Thanks for the post!

Wonder if they could be used to help desalinate land?

[RETIRED]

Looks like Prickly Pear to me.

[bsrlee]

Not Prickly, the 'branches' seem to be circular in cross section, not flattened paddles like Prickly. But I would agree that it appears to be a member of the cactus family, which means it is an escaped, feral plant, probably from some homestead garden in the last 150 or so years.

[rod1949]

Looks like Prickly Pear to me.

its absolutley nothing like a prickly pear:no:

[rod1949]

which means it is an escaped, feral plant, probably from some homestead garden in the last 150 or so years.

Now that you mentioned it bsrlee the station that it is on is Mt Elvire Station and the previous owner/s lost the station due to them flying in funny weed, maybe a few seeds escaped and have mutated into these plants.:o

[Burnsy]

Putting my goldfields enviro hat on now (it's an old one with plenty of holes that has let a lot of information out) but it is not introduced but one of the endemic species to the area. I can not remember the name of it sorry but it is a local.

[wolften]

Pirate Prickly Pear...
https://encrypted-tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRw3x1C51cGveBDKZx78f3zgT4oTR0UDsXnwqG68j3W-6dXAAa52A