Atriplex acanthocarpa |
Atriplex klebergorum |
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armed saltbush, burscale, tubercled saltbush |
Kleberg orach, Kleberg's saltbush |
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Habit | Shrubs or subshrubs, dioecious, evergreen, mainly 2–10 × 4–10+ dm, woody especially basally, unarmed; branchlets obtusely angled to subterete. | Herbs, with ligneous vertical taproot 5–9 mm thick; bark pale. | ||||
Stems | erect, diffuse; branches alternate, numerous, horizontal or distally ascending, terete, 1.5–4 dm, densely white farinose when young, glabrate in age; bark becoming pale brownish white and flaky; internodes mostly shorter than 1(–2.4) cm. |
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Leaves | persistent, proximal ones opposite, becoming alternate distally, short petiolate or subsessile; blade oblong to oblong-lanceolate, ovate, obovate, or spatulate, 12–40(–50) × 5–25 mm, base commonly subhastate to cuneate, margin entire or sinuate-dentate to strongly undulate-crisped, apex acute. |
alternate, proximalmost subopposite, sessile; blade ovate-deltoid, 0.5–1.5(–2.5) × 5–12(–15) mm, rather firm and flat, base rounded, truncate, or slightly clasping, margin entire or toothed, apex acute, very densely canescent-farinose with a greenish yellow tinge. |
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Flowers | sessile, axillary, inconspicuous, mostly in leafy lateral branches with extremely short internodes, arising toward tips of secondary branches. |
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Staminate flowers | in interrupted or crowded glomerules 2–4.5 mm thick, in sparsely leafy paniculate spikes to 5+ dm. |
in most distal axils, 2 mm wide; sepals 3–5, mostly hyaline, curved elliptic, 1.5–1.7 mm, mucronulate, farinose dorsally. |
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Pistillate flowers | few to solitary, in axillary clusters or in crowded or interrupted, often leafy, erect, branched spicate racemes or racemose panicles to 25+ cm. |
densely farinose; bracteoles adnate to ovary. |
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Seeds | brown, 1.5–2 mm. |
dark reddish brown, round-lenticular, 1.5 mm wide, shining; radicle superior. |
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Fruiting | bracteoles on slender or stout stipes (2–)4–20 mm (or sessile), body broadly elliptic to globose, 6–15 mm and wide, spongy, united to the linear apex, margin deeply laciniate, faces appendaged with flattened to hornlike tubercles to 8 mm. |
bracteoles variably and irregularly 3–7-cleft, ovate-orbicular, 3.1–4.7 × (3.2–)4–7 mm, typically somewhat constricted below middle, with terminal lobes (1–)1.5–2.8 mm, densely scurfy, faces doubly cristate or smooth. |
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Atriplex acanthocarpa |
Atriplex klebergorum |
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Phenology | Flowering summer. | |||||
Habitat | In silty or clay loam soils | |||||
Distribution |
AZ; NM; TX; n Mexico
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TX; of conservation concern; near sea level |
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Discussion | Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Of conservation concern. The species was noted by its author as apparently belonging in sect. Argenteae Standley; I concur with that alignment. The overall shape of the bracteoles with a subterminal constriction is reminiscent of those of Atriplex powellii, but the bracteole shape is otherwise distinctive, and the long marginal teeth and occasional elongate cristate processes on the faces are unmatched elsewhere in the Argenteae. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 4, p. 370. | FNA vol. 4, p. 353. | ||||
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Pterochiton | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Argenteae | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Obione acanthocarpa | |||||
Name authority | (Torrey) S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 9: 117. (1874) | M. C. Johnston: SouthW. Naturalist 6: 49. (1961) | ||||
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