Atriplex argentea |
Atriplex phyllostegia |
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maidenhair spleenwort, silver orach, silver orache, silver saltbush, silverscale, silverscale orache, silverscale saltbush, silvery orache |
leafcover saltweed, Truckee orach |
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Habit | Herbs, simple or freely branched, 0.5–6 dm; branches rather stout, angled, scurfy when young. | Herbs monoecious (or entirely pistillate), erect, much-branched, rounded, bushy, 0.5–6 dm. | ||||||||||||||||
Stems | mostly ascending, terete. |
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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). |
petiole 0.3–2 cm; blade 10–50 × 5–25 mm, base varying from shortly hastate to truncate or cuneate. |
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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 small to moderate, axillary glomerules near ends of branches, or in bracteate terminal spikes. |
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Pistillate flowers | in axillary clusters. |
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Seeds | brown, 1.5–2 mm wide; radicle superior or lateral. |
brown, 1.2 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 lanceolate or oblong, 5–14(–20) mm, sharply lobed to tuberculate at base, also often sharply cristate below usually attenuate apical lobe; tips widely recurved-spreading. |
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2n | = 18, 36, 54. |
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Atriplex argentea |
Atriplex phyllostegia |
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Phenology | Flowering Apr–Aug. | |||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Valley bottoms, silty or clay, less commonly, sandy alluvium with greasewood | |||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 1200-1500 m (3900-4900 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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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.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 4. | FNA vol. 4, p. 368. | ||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Argenteae | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Phyllostegiae | ||||||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||||||
Synonyms | Obione argentea | Obione phyllostegia, A. draconis, A. phyllostegia var. draconis | ||||||||||||||||
Name authority | Nuttall: Gen. N. Amer. Pl. 1: 198. (1818) | (Torrey ex S. Watson) S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 9: 108. (1874) | ||||||||||||||||
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