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shadscale, shadscale saltbush, sheepfat, spiny saltbush

slenderleaf saltbush, thinleaf fourwing saltbush

Habit Shrubs, dioecious, 3–8 dm, spinescent. Shrubs dioecious, erect, mainly 10–25 dm; branchlets slender, terete.
Leaves

persistent, alternate;

petiole 1–4 mm;

blade orbiculate to ovate, elliptic, or oval, 9–25(–45) × 4–20(–25) mm, margin entire, apex obtuse.

sessile;

blade narrowly linear-elliptic, 10–50 × 2–3 mm, firm, revolute, often acute apically.

Staminate flowers

yellow, in clusters 2–4 mm wide or in spikes to 1 cm, axillary, in foliose-bracteate, divaricately branched panicles 3–15 cm.

in glomerules borne in slender interrupted mostly paniculate spikes.

Pistillate flowers

in similar paniculate inflorescences.

paniculate or in few-flowered axillary glomerules.

Seeds

1.5–2 mm wide.

Fruiting

bracteoles sessile or subsessile, suborbiculate to rhombic or elliptic, 4–12 mm and wide, body indurate, terminal teeth distinct, foliaceous, shorter than bracteoles, entire or toothed below, terminal teeth spreading at maturity, faces smooth, lacking appendages.

bracteoles sessile or subsessile, lanceolate to ovate, 4–6 mm, about as wide, each bract with a pair of thin wings 3 mm broad or less, irregularly dentate or laciniate, free tips of bracts much exceeding the wings.

2n

= 18, 36, 54+.

= 18.

Atriplex confertifolia

Atriplex linearis

Phenology Flowering spring–fall. Flowering spring–fall.
Habitat Gravelly to fine-textured soils in greasewood, mat-atriplex, other salt desert shrub, sagebrush, pinyon-juniper, and ponderosa pine communities Saline deserts, with shadscale, Canotia, Yucca, Opuntia, Rhus, and Eriogonum
Elevation 600-2200 m (2000-7200 ft) 0-800 m (0-2600 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; ND; NM; NV; OR; TX; UT; WY
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AZ; CA; nw Mexico (Baja California, Sonora)
[WildflowerSearch map]
Discussion

Shadscale forms hybrids with Atriplex canescens, A. garrettii, A. corrugata, and A. gardneri varieties. It is, however, closely allied to A. parryi and A. spinifera. The plants are widely dispersed, typically on saline substrates but less commonly on essentially non-saline ones, through large areas of the western United States and adjacent Canada and Mexico, on both raw and exposed geological strata and on alluvium.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Specimens of Atriplex canescens var. macilenta resemble A. linearis. The taxa have been placed together by some previous workers. Nevertheless, the stems of A. linearis are consistently more slender, the leaves proportionally narrower, and the bracts, though smaller, more closely simulate those of A. canescens. Its diploid nature signals a different evolutionary pathway than that for most of A. canescens, considered broadly. Narrow leaves occur within A. canescens, in the broad sense, sometimes with geographic correlation, sometimes not.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 4. FNA vol. 4, p. 381.
Parent taxa Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Pterochiton Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Pterochiton
Sibling taxa
A. acanthocarpa, A. amnicola, A. argentea, A. californica, A. canescens, A. cordulata, A. coronata, A. corrugata, A. coulteri, A. covillei, A. dioica, A. elegans, A. fruticulosa, A. gardneri, A. garrettii, A. glabriuscula, A. gmelinii, A. graciliflora, A. heterosperma, A. holocarpa, A. hortensis, A. hymenelytra, A. joaquiniana, A. klebergorum, A. laciniata, A. lentiformis, A. leucophylla, A. lindleyi, A. linearis, A. littoralis, A. matamorensis, A. mucronata, A. nudicaulis, A. nummularia, A. oblongifolia, A. obovata, A. pacifica, A. parishii, A. parryi, A. patula, A. pentandra, A. phyllostegia, A. pleiantha, A. polycarpa, A. powellii, A. prostrata, A. pusilla, A. rosea, A. saccaria, A. semibaccata, A. serenana, A. spinifera, A. suberecta, A. suckleyi, A. tatarica, A. torreyi, A. truncata, A. tularensis, A. watsonii, A. wolfii, A. wrightii
A. acanthocarpa, A. amnicola, A. argentea, A. californica, A. canescens, A. confertifolia, A. cordulata, A. coronata, A. corrugata, A. coulteri, A. covillei, A. dioica, A. elegans, A. fruticulosa, A. gardneri, A. garrettii, A. glabriuscula, A. gmelinii, A. graciliflora, A. heterosperma, A. holocarpa, A. hortensis, A. hymenelytra, A. joaquiniana, A. klebergorum, A. laciniata, A. lentiformis, A. leucophylla, A. lindleyi, A. littoralis, A. matamorensis, A. mucronata, A. nudicaulis, A. nummularia, A. oblongifolia, A. obovata, A. pacifica, A. parishii, A. parryi, A. patula, A. pentandra, A. phyllostegia, A. pleiantha, A. polycarpa, A. powellii, A. prostrata, A. pusilla, A. rosea, A. saccaria, A. semibaccata, A. serenana, A. spinifera, A. suberecta, A. suckleyi, A. tatarica, A. torreyi, A. truncata, A. tularensis, A. watsonii, A. wolfii, A. wrightii
Synonyms Obione confertifolia, A. collina, A. subconferta, Obione rigida A. canescens subsp. linearis, A. canescens var. linearis
Name authority (Torrey & Frémont) S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 9: 119. (1874) S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 24: 72. (1889)
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