Atriplex confertifolia |
Atriplex linearis |
|
---|---|---|
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 |
AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; ND; NM; NV; OR; TX; UT; WY
|
AZ; CA; nw Mexico (Baja California, Sonora)
|
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 | ||
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) |
Web links |