Atriplex acanthocarpa
Atriplex tularensis
armed saltbush, burscale, tubercled saltbush
Bakersfield smallscale, Tulare orach, Tulare saltbush
aging red, terete or obscurely angled, brittle.
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 or proximalmost opposite;
blade lanceolate to ovate, 6–20 × 4–8 mm, base rounded, margin entire, apex acute to acuminate, gray scurfy.
in interrupted or crowded glomerules 2–4.5 mm thick, in sparsely leafy paniculate spikes to 5+ dm.
in small axillary dense glomerules, 4-merous.
few to solitary, in axillary clusters or in crowded or interrupted, often leafy, erect, branched spicate racemes or racemose panicles to 25+ cm.
solitary or in small axillary clusters, below or mixed with staminate.
brown, 1.5–2 mm.
dark brown, 1–1.2 mm.
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 sessile, rhombic-ovate, acute or acuminate, 2.5–3.5 × 2.2–3 mm, united to middle, thin margin toothed, faces plane, scurfy.
Atriplex acanthocarpa
Atriplex tularensis
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Of conservation concern.
H. M. Hall and F. E. Clements (1923) discussed the relationship of this plant to Atriplex cordulata, noting that, “A. tularensis is a much more slender plant, the leaves are narrower in proportion to their length,” and tapering to the base, never at all cordate. They noted further, that “The fruiting bracts are sometimes very similar in shape, but those of tularensis typically end in an abrupt acute tooth not present in cordulata and both bract and seed are always smaller.” Because of its small fruiting bracteoles it was placed within the Pusillae by P. C. Standley (1916). The erect stature, coupled with distinctive spreading-ascending and stiff (at least in dried material) leaves, and foliose bracts apparently distinguish A. tularensis from A. coronata.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Leaf blade ovate to rhombic-ovate, elliptic, or spatulate, margin mainly sinuate-dentate; mature fruiting inflorescences ascending to erect; west Texas, s New Mexico, se Arizona | var. acanthocarpa |
1. Leaf blade, at least some, hastate-lanceolate, or strongly undulate-crisped; mature fruiting inflorescences mainly horizontally spreading; s Texas, Mexico | var. coahuilensis |
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