Trianthema triquetra Willd. ex Spreng.

A species of saline-soil. Can be used as a fodder for goats and cattle.

An annual herb. Roots often long and slender. Stem diffuse, prostrate, papillose. Leaves 0.4-1.2 cm long, 1.5-3.5 mm broad, elliptic-ovate to oblanceolate, leaf base sheathing, membranous. Flowers solitary or 2-3, sessile; bract c. 2 mm long, ovate, acuminate; bracteoles 2, less than 1 mm long. Calyx tube campanulate, persistent; sepals 9 mm long, ovate. Stamens 5, alternating with the sepals, filaments less than 1 mm long. Ovary c. 1.2 mm long, turbinate; style 1, persistent. Pyxidium 2 mm long, lid circular, c. 1.5 mm broad, flat, depressed in the centre; amphora 1-seeded. Seed 1.1 mm broad, rugose, black.

Distribution: Africa, Arabia, India & Pakistan.

Fl. Per. : July-November.

Trianthema triquetrum (orthographic variant Trianthema triquetra) is a plant in the Aizoaceae family, found in the Sahara, the Sahel, South Africa, the Indian subcontinent, Thailand, Indonesia and all the mainland states and territories of Australia, except Victoria.

It was first described by Carl Ludwig Willdenow in 1803.

The species epithet, triquetrum, is a Latin adjective, which describes the plant as having three corners.