Atriplex confertifolia |
Atriplex pleiantha |
|
---|---|---|
shadscale, shadscale saltbush, sheepfat, spiny saltbush |
four-corners orach |
|
Habit | Shrubs, dioecious, 3–8 dm, spinescent. | Herbs, branching from base, mainly 0.5–1.5 dm, glabrous or sparingly scurfy. |
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. |
alternate to subopposite, petiolate; blade ovate to suborbiculate, 5–18(–20) mm, about as wide, margin entire, apex obtuse to acute. |
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 short terminal spikes. |
Pistillate flowers | in similar paniculate inflorescences. |
|
Seeds | 1.5–2 mm wide. |
falling at maturity, black, 1.5 mm, shining, smooth. |
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 short stipitate, compressed, 3–7 mm wide and about as long, entire; perianth consisting of 5 hyaline, sparsely ciliate scales 1–1.2 mm. |
2n | = 18, 36, 54+. |
|
Atriplex confertifolia |
Atriplex pleiantha |
|
Phenology | Flowering spring–fall. | Flowering late summer–fall. |
Habitat | Gravelly to fine-textured soils in greasewood, mat-atriplex, other salt desert shrub, sagebrush, pinyon-juniper, and ponderosa pine communities | Salt-desert shrub community |
Elevation | 600-2200 m (2000-7200 ft) | 1400-1500 m (4600-4900 ft) |
Distribution |
AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; ND; NM; NV; OR; TX; UT; WY
|
AZ; CO; NM; UT |
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.) |
|
Source | FNA vol. 4. | FNA vol. 4, p. 345. |
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Pterochiton | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Pleianthae |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Obione confertifolia, A. collina, A. subconferta, Obione rigida | Proatriplex pleiantha |
Name authority | (Torrey & Frémont) S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 9: 119. (1874) | W. A. Weber: Madroño 10: 189, figs. 1, 2. (1950) |
Web links |