Atriplex argentea
Atriplex californica
maidenhair spleenwort, silver orach, silver orache, silver saltbush, silverscale, silverscale orache, silverscale saltbush, silvery orache
California orach, California saltbush
many branched, subterete, 1.5–5 dm, white scurfy when young.
often opposite proximally, petiolate or distal bracteate ones subsessile, blade lance-ovate, lanceolate, deltoid, or cordate, 5–75 × 4–50(–75) mm, base subhastate or obtuse to acute, margin entire or essentially so, sometimes closely repand-dentate, apex obtuse to acute or rounded, scurfy (glabrous).
numerous, often crowded, alternate or proximalmost opposite;
blade narrowly lanceolate to narrowly oblanceolate or elliptic, 4–20 × 1–5 mm, acute at both ends, gray scurfy.
in axillary glomerules and terminal, interrupted spikes.
borne in distal axils, or in short dense spikes or panicles, or intermixed with pistillate, with 4–5-parted calyx.
in terminal bracteate spikes, or mixed with pistillate in rather dense axillary clusters, 4-merous.
brown, 1.5–2 mm wide;
radicle superior or lateral.
dark (black), 1–2 mm.
bracteoles sessile, subsessile, or stipitate (stipe 0.5–5 mm), cuneate-orbicular, (2.5–)4–11.2 × 2–8.8(–14) mm, margin foliaceous below apex, subentire or dentate to laciniate, face smooth, tuberculate, or crested, processes sometimes again toothed, teeth then aligned with axis of process.
bracteoles sessile, rhombic-ovate to ovate, scarcely united, 2.5–4 mm, margin entire, acute.
= 18, 36, 54.
Atriplex argentea
Atriplex californica
Varieties 5 (5 in the flora).
Herbarium materials have tended to represent a catchall for annual specimens not readily assignable to other taxa. Indeed, the distinguishing features of the Atriplex argentea complex are shared singly and often in combination with other taxa. Only by use of combinations of features can this taxon be defined. Those features, with much variation, center around the broad, typically ovate to deltoid leaf blades (often definitely 3-veined) and more-or-less compressed, sessile to subsessile (or short stipitate), fruiting bracteoles on which the marginal processes, or teeth, are mainly aligned with the plane compression, and with the faces quite smooth to variously appendaged. Still some specimens are apparently intermediate with other species, especially with the closely allied A. saccaria, with which it is at least partially sympatric.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
H. M. Hall and F. E. Clements (1923) placed great emphasis on the inferior radicle, dioecious habit, and free bracts in stating that there are no close relatives of Atriplex californica in North America. P. C. Standley (1916) regarded the radicle as lateral or superior, not inferior, and placed the species at the beginning of his treatment of the American species. Plants of A. californica, however, form a mirror-image, matched pair with A. watsonii, with which they share habit, leaf conformation, staminate glomerules arranged, at least partially, in terminal interrupted spikes, and Kranz anatomy, but from which they differ in the radicle position, valves of the fruiting bracteoles free beyond the middle, monoecious habit, and mostly alternate leaves. The interpretation by Hall and Clements of radicle position as fundamental is made problematic by the apparent random occurrence of a great many morphologic features from place to place within the genus and often within the taxon. Each character fails individually as having definitive taxonomic importance, making difficult or impossible an ultimately satisfactory phylogenetic arrangement. It is not, however, the character that makes the species, rather, it is the entire syndrome of features that constitutes the taxon. Most certainly A. californica is more closely allied to American taxa than to those from other regions of the world.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Plants low, rounded, mainly 1-3(-4.5) dm; fruiting bracteoles sessile or rarely some short stipitate, the appendages mainly acuminate or acute-attenuate; Nevada and adjacent se California, se Oregon | → 2 |
1. Plants rather strict and often taller, mainly 2-4(-5) dm; fruiting bracteoles, at least some, short stipitate; appendages acute to less commonly acuminate to attenuate; other distribution | → 3 |
2. Leaf blades typically, but not always, constricted to the petiole; herbage merely scurfy, or with elongate trichomes mainly on the fruiting bracteoles; Nevada (except the southern part), and adjacent se California and se Oregon | var. hillmanii |
2. Leaf blades typically, if not always, cuneate to a winged petiole or merely sessile base; herbage copiously covered with elongate trichomes throughout, or mostly on the stems and fruiting bracteoles; Nye County, Nevada and adjacent Inyo County, California | var. longitrichoma |
3. Leaf blades elliptic to oval, attenuate to a cuneate base; sw Colorado, se Utah, and nw New Mexico | var. rydbergii |
3. Leaf blades triangular-ovate to oval, base broadly obtuse to acute or less commonly cuneate; various or other distribution | → 4 |
4. Distal leaves short petiolate; proximalmost leaves alternate; plants mostly less than 4 dm; British Columbia to Manitoba, s through Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, Idaho, Utah, e Nevada, Colorado, w Kansas, ne Arizona, nw New Mexico | var. argentea |
4. Distal leaves sessile; proximalmost leaves opposite; plants mostly over 4 dm; California, s Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, w Oklahoma, w and n Texas | var. mohavensis |
- Local floras:
BC, 
CA, 
OR, 
WA - Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos,
Flora NW, 
KS Wildflowers, 
PNW Herbaria 
WildflowerSearch
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USDA Plants Database- LBJ Wildflower Center
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