Atriplex confertifolia |
Atriplex powellii |
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shadscale, shadscale saltbush, sheepfat, spiny saltbush |
Powell's orach, Powell's orache, Powell's saltbush, Powell's saltweed |
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Habit | Shrubs, dioecious, 3–8 dm, spinescent. | Herbs, dioecious or sometimes sparingly monoecious. | ||||
Stems | slender to stout, mainly 1–5(–7) dm, branching almost throughout; herbage pubescent with scurfy and arachnoid hairs. |
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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, proximalmost on petioles (3–)5–30 mm, becoming subsessile or short petiolate distally; blade 3-veined, ovate to rhombic or orbiculate to elliptic, 0.4–5 × 0.2–3 cm, base rounded to cuneate, margin entire, apex acute to obtuse. |
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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. |
with calyx 4–5-lobed. |
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Pistillate flowers | in similar paniculate inflorescences. |
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Seeds | 1.5–2 mm wide. |
greenish, yellowish, or brown, 0.9–2 mm; radicle superior. |
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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, ovate to oblong or broadly cuneate or pan-duriform, 1.5–5.5 × 1.5–5 mm, thick, united to apex, apex truncate to cuspidate or tridentate, surfaces with thickened processes or rarely smooth. |
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2n | = 18, 36, 54+. |
= 18. |
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Atriplex confertifolia |
Atriplex powellii |
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Phenology | Flowering spring–fall. | |||||
Habitat | Gravelly to fine-textured soils in greasewood, mat-atriplex, other salt desert shrub, sagebrush, pinyon-juniper, and ponderosa pine communities | |||||
Elevation | 600-2200 m (2000-7200 ft) | |||||
Distribution |
AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; ND; NM; NV; OR; TX; UT; WY
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AZ; CO; ID; MT; NE; NM; OR; SD; UT; WY; AB; SK
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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.) |
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). (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. 352. | ||||
Parent taxa | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Pterochiton | Chenopodiaceae > Atriplex > subg. Obione > sect. Obione > subsect. Argenteae | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Obione confertifolia, A. collina, A. subconferta, Obione rigida | Obione powellii | ||||
Name authority | (Torrey & Frémont) S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 9: 119. (1874) | S. Watson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 9: 114. (1874) | ||||
Web links |