Atriplex argentea |
Atriplex klebergorum |
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maidenhair spleenwort, silver orach, silver orache, silver saltbush, silverscale, silverscale orache, silverscale saltbush, silvery orache |
Kleberg orach, Kleberg's saltbush |
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Habit | Herbs, simple or freely branched, 0.5–6 dm; branches rather stout, angled, scurfy when young. | 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 | 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). |
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 | in axillary glomerules and terminal, interrupted spikes. |
sessile, axillary, inconspicuous, mostly in leafy lateral branches with extremely short internodes, arising toward tips of secondary branches. |
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Staminate flowers | borne in distal axils, or in short dense spikes or panicles, or intermixed with pistillate, with 4–5-parted calyx. |
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 | densely farinose; bracteoles adnate to ovary. |
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Seeds | brown, 1.5–2 mm wide; radicle superior or lateral. |
dark reddish brown, round-lenticular, 1.5 mm wide, shining; radicle superior. |
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Fruiting | 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 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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2n | = 18, 36, 54. |
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Atriplex argentea |
Atriplex klebergorum |
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Phenology | Flowering summer. | |||||||||||||||||
Habitat | In silty or clay loam soils | |||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
AZ; CA; CO; ID; KS; MT; ND; NE; NM; NV; OK; OR; SD; TX; UT; WA; WY; AB; BC; MB; SK; Mexico
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TX; of conservation concern; near sea level |
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Discussion | 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.) |
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. | FNA vol. 4, p. 353. | ||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Argenteae | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Argenteae | ||||||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||||||
Synonyms | Obione argentea | |||||||||||||||||
Name authority | Nuttall: Gen. N. Amer. Pl. 1: 198. (1818) | M. C. Johnston: SouthW. Naturalist 6: 49. (1961) | ||||||||||||||||
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