Atriplex argentea |
Atriplex parryi |
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maidenhair spleenwort, silver orach, silver orache, silver saltbush, silverscale, silverscale orache, silverscale saltbush, silvery orache |
Parry's saltbush |
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Habit | Herbs, simple or freely branched, 0.5–6 dm; branches rather stout, angled, scurfy when young. | Shrubs, dioecious, mainly 2–5 dm, armed. | ||||||||||||||||
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). |
, short petiolate to sessile; blade orbiculate-cordate, or ovate-deltate to elliptic, 7–16(–22) × 6–10(–16) mm, base truncate or tapering, entire or less commonly subhastate. |
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Flowers | in axillary glomerules and terminal, interrupted spikes. |
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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 glomerules on interrupted, leafy paniculate spikes. |
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Pistillate flowers | in small glomerules borne in leafy, paniculate spikes. |
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Seeds | brown, 1.5–2 mm wide; radicle superior or lateral. |
brown, 1.3–1.9 mm. |
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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 sessile or nearly so, truncate-flabelliform, 3–4 × 3–5 mm, thick and rigid, spongy, united to beyond middle, margin entire, faces smooth. |
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2n | = 18, 36, 54. |
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Atriplex argentea |
Atriplex parryi |
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Phenology | Flowering spring–fall. | |||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Saline, fine-textured soils | |||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 60-1500 m (200-4900 ft) | |||||||||||||||||
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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CA; NV
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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.) |
Atriplex parryi occurs with greasewood, saltbush, saltgrass, and Nitrophila. The cordate-clasping, sessile leaves and spiny branches distinguish this species from its nearest congeners. (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. 378. | ||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Argenteae | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Pterochiton | ||||||||||||||||
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Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||||||
Synonyms | Obione argentea | |||||||||||||||||
Name authority | Nuttall: Gen. N. Amer. Pl. 1: 198. (1818) | S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 17: 378. (1882) | ||||||||||||||||
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