Citation: Ehrend. & McGillivray in McGillivray, Telopea 2:370 (1983).

Synonymy: G. ciliare sensu J. Black, Fl. S. Aust. 538 (1929), sensu Toelken in Jessop, List Vasc. Pl. S. Aust. 78 (1983), non Hook. f. (1847); G. gaudichaudii sensu J. Black, Fl. S. Aust. 799 (1957), partly.

Common name: None

Description:
Perennial with a woody base producing many weak to wiry branches up to 12 mm long, usually much branched, decumbent to spreading; stems quadrangular, with fine straight erect hairs mainly along the raised ridges; leaves and stipules about equal, in whorls of 4, subpetiolate, ovate, rarely lanceolate, 3-6 mm long, usually acute, with scattered erect bristles on the upper and lower surface but mainly along the recurved margin and densely clustered on the leaf sheaths and nodes, stiffly erect.

Inflorescences axillary, usually 2 per node each with usually 1 flower, or if more then with leaf-like bracts, with peduncles usually very short or absent and pedicels shorter than the leaves; corolla yellowish-green.

Fruit 1.5-2 mm long, with 2 reniform mericarps touching one another, each densely granulate; fruiting stalk erect.

Distribution:  S.Aust.: EP, NL, MU, YP, SL, KI, SE.   Vic. Conservation status: native Flowering time: Sept. — Jan.

SA Distribution Map based on current data relating to specimens held in the State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: No text

Taxonomic notes: Plants of G. compactum from the mainland often have lanceolate leaves and some plants a more tufted habit. Small plants of G. gaudichaudii are, however, distinguished from it by the absence of a woody base, they are usually little-branched, internodes are often longer than 10 mm and the leaves are linear. G. ciliare, another very similar species, differs mainly by its longer inflorescences, i.e. a peduncle 5-15 mm long and pedicels 1-5 mm long. 1 specimen from near Victor Harbor, which has inflorescences approaching these measurements and has internodes 8-12 mm long, has nevertheless been placed into G. compacturn because G. ciliare has only been recorded from the south-east coast of Vic. and N.S.W. as well as from Tas.

Author: Not yet available